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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • Catalan : metonymic occupational name for a maker of chains or perhaps for a jailer, from Catalan and Spanish cadena ‘chain’ (Latin catena). This form (singular) is rare as a surname in Castile, but frequent in Catalonia; the plural (Cadenas) occurs in both regions but is more frequent in the former.

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