Etiennc01, everyone (except you) assumed that she was talking about “Latin American” names and it is easy to appreciate that it was what she had in mind. It is a so common situation that it is not so difficult to understand what she was talking about.

You forget Polish "The Malenkov's" my family in Haiti are Armand Calixte whereas those in Cuba are Armando Calixto I am not sure the exact reason of the name change, perhaps easier to pronounce, out respect, or just want to blend it

Aristide became Ariste, Armando became Amado.

I think that the question should be rephrased like: Have you ever wondered why so many Haitians have SPANISH surnames and not French? chill, cuz' last I saw, we Hispanics don't hold a monopoly of the Latin demonym, even though we are the majority under this category on the US. Latin is a broader demonym which encompasses all the latin tribes with their languages and derivatives, including French, Catalan, Kreyol Ayisien, Basque, Portuguese, Italian, Romanian, Spanish, Corsican, Sardinian, Piedmontese, Venetian, Walloon and Galician, among others. As such, the single most populated latin country on this continent is Brazil, with almost 200 million people. And lastly, I find it unjust for some people to try and isolate Haiti from the rest of Latin America, considering that the independence process of the countries of this subcontinent began over there on 1804.

As for your question about the haitian families with spanish surnames this is easily explained by the fact that the central plateau of that country was once dominican territory, one which include among its main towns: Saint Michel de l'Atalaye, Hinche (Pedro Santana's birthplace), Saint Raphael and Las Cahobas. Even though this region ended up under haitian authority after the negotiations between Trujillo and Stenio Vincent on 1937 (in the aftermath of the massacres), not all the dominican families that up to that time resided on that region ended migrating to the new border, more so when we consider the fact that, for all intends and purposes, Haiti was a democracy back then while the DR was under an iron fisted tyranny. You'll notice that the majority of the haitian families with spanish surnames either hail from the central plateau or from the southern peninsula, where a group of cuban emigrés like antonioj's family, ended up on the area, specifically on the town of Jeremie. Although this migration have been two sided, since there are cuban towns in which a significant part of their population is of haitian descent, specially on the area between Santiago de Cuba and Punta Maisi, which is the southeasternmost point of the cuban island, and the one closest to Hispaniola (in fact, the distance separating our island from Cuba is shorter than the one separating us from Puerto Rico, so much so that, in a clear day, one can see Cuba when one is on top one of Haiti's highest mornes on the north, which are on the area of the Citadelle Laferriere).

lets see the trolls talk about this

i know that you expect them to say because we have haitian blood in us which is what i expect them to say anyway. the spaniord was not the only european man to set foot in the dominican republic an im sure there was some cross border exchange in some way in the earlier days between the two sides.

GOT GARIFUNA????