CHamoru Surnames

A relatively recent development

Traditionally, CHamorus didn’t have surnames. Each person was known by a first name and was probably referred to also according to his clan name. When the Spanish missionaries baptized someone, he or she was christened with a name of a saint. Whatever that person’s first name was became his surname. This explains why there is no continuity of surnames even within the same nuclear family.

The three earliest censuses of the Mariana Islands were in 1710, 1727, and 1759. These documents, called the “Archivo General de Indias,” were obtained by the Micronesian Area Research Center at the University of Guam. The original documents are located in Sevilla, Spain.

Both the 1727 Census and 1759 Census record the earliest traditional CHamoru surnames in the Mariana Islands. A list of surnames in these documents, many of which are the forerunners of modern CHamoru surnames, follows. The spellings may have some discrepancies because there was no official orthography for the CHamoru language when this was written in 1984.

These surnames with their approximate definitions are:

Name	Definition	Name	Definition
Ge’hilu’	Further up	Tainahung	Never satisfied or enough
Guailayi	To have reason for	Gaulafna	His or her full moon
Masangan	To be said or spoken off	Talina	His or her rope
Sagua’na	His or her channel	Nilemlim	Surprised or astonished
Goftalu’	Exactly in the middle or center	Tai’igi	No comparison
Ega’ga’	To urge to act upon	Tasina	His or sea or ocean
Mamaisa	To be alone	Taikanu	To have nothing to eat
Taisagui	No holding or not attached	Atdauna	His or her light or sunlight
Na’lahu	To cause to walk	Manpagat	To be admonished or advised
Chattungu	Little knowledge of	Ma’i’ut	Narrow opening
Maktus	To split or cut off	Mafa’ta	To be presented before
Goflachi	Extremely at fault or incredibly wrong	Manaitai	To be read or to pray
Ke’gacha	To try to step on	Tatmaulik	Not too good
Ke’na’an	To try to reach into	Ke’poksai	To try to rear or raise
Taga’na	His or her split	Mehgai	A lot off or bountiful
Ke’taka	To try to reach into	Taichigu	No juice or liquid
Na’yauyau	To shake or to cause to quiver	Inayik	The chosen one
Sumaina	His or her soak or place of soaking	Ke’tahgui	To substitute for
Tano’na	His or her land	Mafak	Cracked or fragmented
Taimanglu	No wind	Apu	Ash
Tai’asi’	No pity or lacking warmth for	Chata’an	Not clear day or sensitive
Samai	Beautiful	Ke’kanu	To try to eat
Ke’fana	To try to face or to confront	Fahalang	To try to cause lonliness
Gogui	To safe or to secure	Mafa’tahgul	To disregard someone’s presence
Baubau	Shaky or quivering	Achaigua	Similar to
Masga	Had enough off or satiated	Napuna	His or her wave
Asonna	His or her resting area	Taifa’gas	No place for cleansing
Matuna	Blessed	Taifinu	No words or remarks for
Tatlumahi	Not manly	Tai’iyu	No possession of
Chatsaga	Not in place or with little economic wealth	Maulekna	It is better
Ke’ta’lu	To try again	Taifalak	No direction or no destination
Taisungsung	No plugger or without a stopper	Taigachung	No comparison or friendship
Taiguaha	Without possession	Samailhi	The beautiful male
Fa’tangis	To create or make like tears	Tatmahalang	Little longing for
Na’ayau	To lend	Taigualu	No farmfield
Masa	Cooked	Fa’chalik	To ridicule or make fun of
Taimagung	No cure	Matangsi	To weep for
Lagua	Net	Mataya	To be without
Hanum	Water	Ke’tugua	To cause to fall
Taisahyan	No transportation	Gofsaina	To be paternalistic or materialistic
Tatpa’gu	Little beauty	Ma’asi	To have pity for
Taina’an	No name or reference	Taisakan	No harvest of not of age

US Naval period

There are a number of traditional CHamoru surnames that have survived today. Most have been recorded and defined by Laura Thompson, an American anthropologist who visited Guam before World War II. She was assisted by Gertrude Costenoble Hornbostel, a German who migrated to the Mariana Islands during the German administration along with her husband, Hans Hornbostel. Gertrude, who was commonly called “Trudis Aleman” by the CHamorus, spoke CHamoru fluently.

The following traditional CHamoru surnames appear in Thompson and Hornbostel’s works. Some of the surnames with their traditional orthography are:

Name	Definition
Afaisen	To ask each other
Charguilla (Chatguiya)	Not physically well
Charguane (Chatguani)	Excretion not removed
Atao (Atau)	To give each other
Gumataotao (Guma’tautau)	House of people
Hokog (Hokuk)	No more, empty, completed
Mata	Eye
Manajane (Manai’ani)	No day, no spirit
Maanao (Ma’anau)	Frighten
Quinene (Kineni’)	To be taken away or from
Quichocho (Ke’cho’cho’)	To remove from a hiding place, associated with fishing
Taifino (Taifinu’)	Lacking expression or words for
Taijito (Taihitu)	No lice

It is interesting to note that all the traditional CHamoru surnames are either action or descriptive words. Names of fishes or plants are not associated with individuals.

Note from the author

This entry was originally written for the “La Sangri Yama” series. I am especially proud of my work entitled the “Taitano Families of the Marianas Islands.” Taitano is the only surname in my bloodline that is a CHamoru word. It is also a distinguished CHamoru family group with a rich oral history.

The surname, Taitano, is a compound word. The morphological structure is “tai” which means “non” or “no.” “Tanu” means “land” or “earth.” In literal translation, Taitano, denotes “The landless.” This surname appears in the early historical documents and was originally spelled “Taytano.”

The spelling of most surnames in the Mariana Islands was changed according to the historical documents, especially during the early American Naval Administration of Guam in 1898.

By Anthony “Malia” Ramirez

Editor’s note: Originally published in the “Freedom to Be”: 40th Anniversary of the Liberation of Guam, 1984.