Nieves

Nieves, the Spanish plural form of nieve (English: snow), is a surname and female given name derived from the title of the Virgin Mary Nuestra Señora de las Nieves (Our Lady of the Snows), a reference to the 4th-century Catholic miracle of a summertime snowfall on the Esquiline Hill in Rome, where the Basilica Sanctae Mariae ad Nives was built. According to Roser Saurí Colomer and Patrick Hanks of Brandeis University, the surname is original to northwestern Spain, descending from the Asturleones...