Gustavo

Gustavo is the Spanish, Portuguese and Italian form of the masculine Scandinavian name Gustav. The name likely originates from the Old Norse elements “Gautr” meaning ‘Goth’ and “stafr” meaning ‘staff’. The Goths were an Eastern Germanic tribe who emerged from Scandinavia (particularly Sweden) and eventually broke out into two branches, the Visigoths (western) and the Ostrogoths (eastern). Now extinct, the Goths played a huge role in the fall of the Roman Empire (in fact, it was the Visigoths who famously sacked Rome in 410 AD). Eventually, the Visigoths defeated the Vandals and conquered most of the Iberian Peninsula by the end of the 5th century. This resulted in the assimilation of cultures, religion and language between the Hispanio-Romans and the Visigoths that by the 7th century any ethnic distinction was no longer visible. This is why you find Germanic names among the Latin Spaniards and Portuguese (same reason why there are left over Arabic names from when the Muslim Moors occupied the Iberian Peninsula). The Visigoths played an important role in the history of Hispaniola. The name Gustavo (i.e., ‘staff of the Goths’) is one symbol of this enduring influence of an old Scandinavian tribe who, over centuries, would come to settle in Spain/Portugal. It is also one of the more rare Spanish and Italian names not inspired by the Catholic Church. Today, Gustavo is on the Top 100 lists in both Mexico and Chile.