MARKUERKIAGA (Marcuerquiaga) Jaime kerexeta in his diccionary only says: In Bizkaia, Composed by Marcos, christian name and Erkiaga. that is all.

O.K. let's try to find something more, because basque surnames are generally names of houses, and there is not any house in Bizkaia with the name Markuerkiaga.

Something is clear, Markuerkiaga is a surname of Bizkaia, and there are families with this surname in: Durango (Marcerquiaga), Lekeitio, Ondarroa, and in Berriatua. all in Bizkaia, there is a family in Pasajes (Gipuzkoa) , and there was in 1946 a family in Barcelona.

There is clear that the surname is composed by two words, MARKU is a christian name Marcos or Marcus, and Erkiaga is a surname that means " place wityh many shrubs" ERKI means Shrub and AGA is a sufix that in toponims means place.

So the surname can be Marcus Erkiaga (name+surname), but also can be Markue-Erkiaga (house Markue+house Erkiaga).

Lekeitio, Ondarroa, and Berriatua are villages close one to another, so the origin of this surname must be in one of them probably. There is a house named Marcue in Mendexa (village close to the other ones), and there are houses Erkiaga in Amoroto and and Izpazter (both villages close to the others, so it is clear than the surname was originated in the north east coast of Bizkaia.

Can be other possibility, in Manaria (close to Durango) there are two houses named Marcue, and in one of them lived in 1745 Miguel Urkiaga, so in this case the surname can be MARKUEURKIAGA, in this case Urkiaga means place of trees, I don't remember the name of the trees in english, but in spanish is a tree named ABEDUL and in french bouleaux.

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