Welcome to the Zavaleta (Zabaleta) Family Home Page.

The Family At A Glance: The Zavaleta (Zabaleta) family is an ancient, honorable and noble Basque family with its origins in the Basque provinces of Northern Spain in the Pyrenees along the border with France. The original Basque spelling of the name is Zabaleta as it is found in Spain today. Zabaleta is not Spanish or Castellano. In the Basque language, the names given to families referred to characteristics of the places where they were located. For example, Zabaleta means a "wide area or a wide mountain pass". The surname Zabaleta is created in the Basque language by combining the root, Zabal, with the suffix, eta, hence Zabal-eta. The surname Zabaleta was changed in the New World to the Spanish or Castellano variant, where the "b" is changed to a "v", hence Zavaleta. The two spellings are interchangeable and represent one single family worldwide. today, people who spell our name Zavaleta are generally from the "New World" while Zabaleta's are in Spain or more recent from Spain in the America's. The advantage that our family has over thousands of other surnames is the fact that it is extremely rare and can be easily traced back to its Basque origins. Since Basque family names are associated with large Basque stone houses or "Casonas", the family can actually be traced back to our original locations in the Basque Country. There is no doubt, therefore that all the Zavaleta/Zabaleta's are of one origin.