The Origins of the Bota: From Persia to Spain

The Origins of the Bota: From Persia to Spain reinterprets the surname Bota through a multidisciplinary lens—combining historical onomastics, archival sources, and qualitative genetic correlations. Traditional Iberian etymologies derive Bota from the Latin bōta (“boot”), yet evidence from Morisco records, Persian lexemes, and archaeogenetic modeling indicate an eastern Iranian origin in بُتّه (boteh/buta), meaning “sprout” or “paisley motif.” Drawing on sources such as Ana Labarta’s La Onomástica de los Moriscos Valencianos, Ibn Bashkuwāl’s Kitāb al-Ṣila, and comparative population data from MyTrueAncestry, DNAGenics, and related datasets, the author situates the Bota lineage within Sarmatian–Sasanian–Khorasan genetic clusters and the historical Persian diaspora in al-Andalus.The paper aims to restore a suppressed cultural identity by integrating linguistic, documentary, and biological evidence, proposing that Bota represents a Persian–Morisco survival rather than a Romance occupational name.