The surname of ALAMO is a Spanish topographic name for someone who lived near a poplar tree or poplar grove. The name was originally derived from the Spanish word ALAMO, and rendered in medieval documents in the Latin form ELMOS (poplar). The name is also spelt ALAMEDA, ALBAREDE, AUVRAY, ALBAREDA and ALBORETO. Surnames derived from placenames are divided into two broad categories; topographic names and habitation names. Topographic names are derived from general descriptive references to someone who lived near a physical feature such as an oak tree, a hill, a stream or a church. Habitation names are derived from pre-existing names denoting towns, villages and farmsteads. Other classes of local names include those derived from the names of rivers, individual houses with signs on them, regions and whole countries. In Spain identifying patronymics are to be found as early as the mid-9th century, but these changed with each generation, and hereditary surnames seem to have come in slightly later in Spain than in England and France. As well as the names of the traditional major saints of the Christian Church, many of the most common Spanish surnames are derived from personal names of Germanic origin. For the most part these names are characteristically Hispanic. They derive from the language of the Visigoths, who controlled Spain between the mid-5th and early 8th centuries. The ALAMO was a mission in the USA in San Antonio, Texas. During the Texas revolution it was defended from 24th February until 6th March, 1836 by less than 200 Texan volunteers (including the legendary Davy Crockett) who were all massacred during the onslaught of 4000 Mexican troups led by Santa Anna. Six weeks later a victory at San Jacinto secured Texan Independence. Over the centuries, most people in Europe have accepted their surname as a fact of life, as irrevocable as an act of God. However much the individual may have liked or disliked the surname, they were stuck with it, and people rarely changed them by personal choice. A more common form of variation was in fact involuntary, when an official change was made, in other words, a clerical error.