Alonso Quijano (Spanish: [aˈlonso kiˈxano]; spelled Quixano in English and in the Spanish of Cervantes' day, pronounced [aˈlons̺o kiˈʃano]), more commonly known by his pseudonym Don Quixote, is a fictional character and the protagonist of the novel Don Quixote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes.
At the outset of the work (Chapter 1 of Part I) we are informed that there is confusion about what his name is. Some (imaginary) authors, the text says, disagree about whether his name was Quijada ("jaw") or Quesada, although by reasoning ("conjeturas verosÃmiles") one could arrive at the name Quijana. At this point, Quijano is not even mentioned as a possibility, nor is Alonso, hinting the reader into one of the most notable yet purposefully obfuscated examples of an unreliable narrator. In Chapter 49 of Part I he tells us that he was a direct descendant of Gutierre Quijada. His "real" name of Alonso Quijano is only revealed in the last chapter of Part II, and with the stated purpose of demonstrating the falseness of the spurious Part II of the pseudonymous Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda, in which work the protagonist is MartÃn Quijada.