Despite folklore and myths about a “Spanish connection”, it is fairly clear that the name “Penaluna” derives from a physical location of the same name near Veryan in Cornwall England and can be dated back to the late 1300’s. Early spellings suggest that in 1390 the name was spelt Pennalune and Penneluna in 1399, both at Veryan. It is therefore a ‘toponymic name”, meaning that the people of the place named Pennalune (or Penneluna) adopted the place name as their surname when the time came. Evidence for this adaptation of a surname from a physical location was suggested by Dr. Oliver Padel in his article entitled “From Cornish Place Names to Surname in Cornwall”, written for the Cornish Family History Society magazine in March 1985. Pointing to a custom in Cornwall of people choosing their surname from the place where they lived, Padel states: “This has drastic implications for genealogists for it means that, even if there is only one place in Cornwall with a particular name, such as Penaluna or Tregilgas, there is absolutely no assurance that all people bearing it as a surname are even remotely related to one another.” In following up this reference to a place named Penaluna with Dr. Padel, he advised that: “ the farm of Penaluna is located at a grid-reference of SW918421, a mile and a half due north of the Veryan church town. It was named (as Penalluna, with double -ll-, although the last letter -a is unclear and it may have been misprinted as a `d', though an `a' would have been intended) on the First Editions of the Ordnance Survey One-Inch map (nineteenth century), but has not been marked on any map since then” . Another authority on place names and surnames is Dr. Bernard Deacon from the University of Exeter. In considering the likely origin of the name, he first refers to an early authority, Gover, who wrote on place-names from the 1940’s, transcribing a lot of place names in various medieval documents in their original spelling. According to Deacon, Gover also notes a Penaluna at Veryan, although spelt Pennalune in 1390 and Penneluna in 1399. There is also the reference in the work Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom which advises the following about the name: “PENALUNA. A Cornish family. The name is local, but the place is not known”. There have been various attempts to place the derivation of the name, starting with the Rev John Bannister in the 19th Century. His work entitled A Glossary of Cornish names, ancient and modern, local, family, personal, &c.: 20,000 Celtic and other names, now or formerly in use in Cornwall suggests that Penaluna can be derived from a combination of words as follows: “Penallund, 1 moor-head land. Penals, head chff, Pr. ; 1 head (jmh) of the cliff or shore (als), M'L. Penaluna, ] moor or hill head (jyeii hal) of the downs (oonoit), H.M.JV” (P.) Dr Bernard Deacon believes that the spelling of the Veryan Penaluna may suggest “end of the moor of pools’ or in other English “Pools moor end”, although with some reservation regarding the use of the ‘a’ at the end . He further advises that by the late 19th century, the name was ramified (divided into branches) and spread north to Wendron and Camborne-Redruth, south onto Lizard, west to Helston and, a little later, east to Falmouth where the greatest number of Penalunas were living by the early 1950’s