AGINAGA

The origin of this surname is in GIPUZKOA

Basque surnames are names of baserriak or farms. People used the name of the house they live as surname, before the Trento Council (about 1570) abolished this practice and enforced that children take the same surname as their father. The names of the farms or houses show where they are located (what type of terrain), or who was the owner.

The meaning of AGINAGA is "place of yew trees": AGIN is yew tree, and the sufix AGA means place.

Often, a house gives its name to a quarter, or zone, so we don't know if the house Aginaga gave the name to the little village, or just the opposite. There are a lot of houses in Gipuzkoa with the name Aginaga: in Beizama, Soraluze, Oiarzun, Azkoitia, Irun, Elgoibar, Alkiza, Ondarrabia, Gaztelu, and Anoeta.

In Bizkaia, there is only a house with this name in Zamudio. In Navarra, there exists a house with this name in Lekunberri.

In Araba, there is a house in Aiala (Mariaka).

It is very difficult to know which of these houses have Aginaga as its own name and which of them have the name of the first owner. In any case your surname originated in one of them, the only way to know which it is is by making a pedigree chart, and going back until the XVI century.

There are a lot of proofs of nobility of families with this surname: Hondarrabia (1663, 1667), Elgoibar (1643, 1723), Aia (1605), Bilbao (1753, 1805), Valladolid, Spain (1576, 1764, 1793). There was also a knight of Alcantara in 1689, and a knight of Santiago in 1645 and 1703.

There are a lot of coats of arms with this surname.

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