Surnames travel too. Sometimes it’s for love, chance, or necessity. But in places like the Canaries, they often move by obligation. After the conquest, the victors quietly implemented an effective strategy of uprooting, aiming to move people from their islands, erasing ties to their land, and weakening their resistance. Today, Ana Navarro (@anaencanarias) reveals a seemingly casual detail hiding centuries of history: Tacoronte and Oramas, surnames of Guanche origin, are now more common on islands other than those that named them. A reflection of the fractures from colonisation, proving even our most intimate links, like names, can preserve memory.
Tacoronte: From the North to the Opposite Province
“One of them is the surname Tacoronte,” explains Ana Navarro. “It originates from the island of Tenerife, from a town currently in the north of the island, which was one of the nine menceyatos or kingdoms in Tenerife during the conquest.”
According to records in the Dictionary of Place Names from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, about 2,000 Canarians bear this surname, either as their first or second. Here’s the twist: “The province of Las Palmas, not Santa Cruz de Tenerife, has the most people with this surname.” Essentially, the surname Tacoronte is more prevalent in Gran Canaria than its birthplace.
Navarro notes this irony even extends beyond the Archipelago: “The highest number of people bearing it outside the islands are in the United States, followed by Venezuela, Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina, and Cuba.” A diaspora that began centuries ago, transforming Tacoronte from a mere place into a migratory surname.
Researcher Perera López points out the geographic similarities between El Hierro’s “Tecorón” and the “Tacoronte” of Tenerife and La Gomera. In Tenerife, for instance, the areas of Guamasa and Los Naranjeros de Tacoronte “can be identified with flat zones surrounded by volcanic hills,” matching the kind of terrain often lending names to such places.
Oramas: A Surname that Honours Resistance
The second surname Navarro discusses holds even more symbolic weight. Oramas, deriving directly from Doramas, was a renowned Guanche warrior from Telde, Gran Canaria.
“He was a war captain, a chief leader offering great resistance during the conquest of Gran Canaria. He took refuge in the Doramas Jungle, a lush laurel forest in Moya, of which only 1% remains today,” recalls Ana. Doramas’ story ends tragically, defeated by Pedro de Vera “through treacherous schemes,” his head displayed on a spike as a warning.
Though Doramas was from Gran Canaria, today the Oramas surname is more common in Tenerife. “In the Canaries, around two thousand people bear the surname Oramas, the majority in the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife,” says Navarro.
A Surname with Greater Echo in America
Furthermore, the Oramas surname spread far more in America than Tacoronte. “Globally, about 9,000 people carry the surname Oramas,” the communicator explains. “Cuba tops the list with over 3,500 people, followed by Mexico, Venezuela, Ecuador, the United States, the Dominican Republic, Uruguay, Colombia, and Canada.”
According to the Canary Islands’ Dictionary of Toponymy, the name Oramas is recorded both as a surname and as a proprietorship mark in Tenerife and Fuerteventura. Place names like Fuente Los Oramas (Los Realejos) or Rosita de Oramas (La Oliva, Fuerteventura) can be found.
The unavoidable question remains: why are there more people with these surnames on islands different from where they originated? Ana summarises: “Due to the uprooting policies post-conquest. People who might cause conflicts were separated. By dividing them, their strength diminished.”
