Ceja Vineyards

Ceja Family Crest

 

A family crest, also known as a coat of arms, is the expression of a family's pride and aspirations; it is a graphical display of a family name history. While perusing the internet and doing research on the Ceja name, I found the Ceja family Crest in three styles as well as information on the origin of the Ceja name.

Purportedly, the Ceja name comes from Galicia in Northern Spain. This area has strong Celtic roots and in fact shares many Celtic traditions with Ireland and Scotland. The first reference to the Cejas was in 1387 in the small village of Friol, in the province of Lugo in Galicia. More references to the name were made in Brates near the Northern coast. There were several spellings of the name, and it was pronounced in the Galego language (Galician). Don Vasco Gomez das Seixas (Cejas) was a communal leader in those times, an important leader who oversaw several communities during his reign. Other spellings of Ceja are: Aceijas, Azexas, Aseixas, Acejas, Acexas, Azeixas, Sejas, Seixas and Xexas. The surname also spread to Portugal and to the Canary Islands where they were known as "Cejas,” "Seijas" or "Sejas."

Spain was a great sea power and one of their major ports was Vigo, on the western edge of Galicia. Most likely the first Cejas probably left from this port to the New World. Although it is not certain of the date that the name Ceja appeared in the New World, the earliest reference to a Ceja was in the mid 17th century in the state of Guanajuato in Mexico. Guanajuato borders the state of Michoacan where the Ceja family of Ceja Vineyards originated from before immigrating to the United States in the 1960s.