Gonzalez or Gonzales... What is the difference?

Question

Gonzalez or Gonzales... What is the difference?

Answer 1

Gonzales is the anglicised version of Gonzalez, they have the same origin, there is no difference.

Answer 2

Genealogy is not based in spelling.

Your father might spell the name with a z, while records of your gr grandfather show the spelling with an s.  Even that is meaningless, since if gr grandpa was illiterate, it is often mispelled in a record and he would not have known to correct it. Not that it mattered anyway.

In genealogy, your purpose is to prove your parents, their parents, and their parents (and on).  A difference in spelling does not mean a difference in biological relationships.

Answer 3

This is what www.ancestry.com has to say about both names,?

#Gonzalez Name Meaning and History

Spanish (González): patronymic from the personal name Gonzalo, a personal name of Visigothic origin, based on the Germanic element gunþ ‘battle’. Compare Portuguese Gonçalves (see Goncalves).

Gonzales Name Meaning and History

Variant of Spanish González (see Gonzalez).

hope this helps.