Juan Cardenas

(male) (Spanish) form of John, now also used as a given name in English-speaking countries, in spite of the unfavourable associations with Don Juan, the heartless seducer of Mozart's opera Don Giovanni (1788) and libertine hero of Byron's satirical epic (1819–24).

Spanish (Cárdenas): habitational name from places in the provinces of Almería and Logroño named Cárdenas, from the feminine plural of cárdeno ‘blue’, ‘bluish purple’ (Late Latin cardinus, from carduus ‘thistle’). Presumably the noun tierras ‘lands’ is to be understood, and the reference is to land covered with bluish plants, such as thistles or vines.