ONDARZA

This surname has origins in Bergara, Guipuzcoa, and in Mundaka, Vizcaya (in 1768).

It means a very sandy place (like a sand dune or beach). This is from the Basque "ondar" (sand) and the suffix representative of abundance, "tza."

The coat of arms is described as "cortado" (cut in half horizontally). The top half has a castle with a two headed eagle on top of it's middle tower. Out of the right window of the castle is an arm holding a spear and the spear is wounding a boar which is trying to climb a tree. On the lower half of the shield to the right side, there is an eagle feeding on a walking deer, and on the left side a tree with three wolves walking at the foot of the tree and each one holding a lamb in its mouth. Above these two items (but still on the lower half of the arms) is a cross of Santiago.

Fidencio Ondarza (familia@ondarza.org) has set up a web page for Ondarzas to meet together. The page is http://www.ondarza.org.

This page is part of Buber's Basque Page and is maintained by Blas Uberuaga. Please report any problems or suggestions to Blas. Eskerrik asko!