Etymology.
-AIN. A very common suffix as an ending for Basque place names and surnames. It may have different origins depending on the case. Its area covers the whole of the present-day Basque Country from approximately a southern line passing through Tafalla and extending through the Pyrenees as far as St. Girons, covering the Gascon Pyrenees. López Mendizábal collected 486 names ending in -ain: of which 239 correspond to Guipúzcoa, 170 to Navarre, 22 to Alava, 21 to Laburdi, 19 to Biscay, 10 to Lower Navarre and 5 to Zuberoa. The country of Couserans, in the department of Ariege, has a large number, but with the particularity of having the form -ein, instead of -ain. These two forms are already in conflict in Zuberoa, Undurein and Roncal, Indurain, a few kilometres away.
For the study of this suffix, it is necessary to separate beforehand those coming from gain, ‘on the’, such as Estrain, ‘on the road’ (from Estratagain); Urkain, ‘on the mill dam’ (uarka gain); Labeain, formerly Labegain (Barandiarán). The name Agurain (present-day Salvatierra de Álava) can be compared with the 17th century place names Agurgain, Aguirgain and Hagurahin. The documentary equivalence Ayestarán, Ayestrain, leads us to the equivalence -aran and -ain. Lecuona and Barandiarán are inclined to think of a pastoral and agricultural toponymy, since it is a suffix which, as L. de Urabayen has already observed, avoids the high mountains and is found in the valleys and meadows. Nor does it descend to the great plains. In 1487, an Ipuc-arana appears in Rioja which can be compared with the Lepus-ain of the Orba Valley in Navarre; in both cases, the toponym refers to a ‘Guipuzcoan’. This -aran, today in Basque vocabulary with the value of ‘valley’, is seen in some Arane toponyms. This form suggests a primitive -arane from which the toponyms Lanz-arain and Lanz-aran, Garz-arain and Garz-aran, Urdin-arain and Urdin-aran, Belauz-arain and Belauz-aran would derive.
This series seems to lead to this one: Bask-aran and Baskain, Barandi-aran and Barandi-ain. Caro Baroja has proposed them as Latin formations in -anu, with equivalents to others outside the Basque country whose base would be an anthroponym, the name of a person to whom the ‘fundi’ belonged. It is known that -anu has given -au(n). In the case of Lazkano and Lazkau. Caro Baroja also favours the same explanation for those ending in -ana such as Antoñana, Crispijana, etc., but he comes up with toponyms such as Mando-jana, Ormi-jana, Castre-jana, Subi-jana, with a clear meaning in current Biscayan Basque: ‘la del mulo’, ‘la de la pared’, ‘la del castro’, ‘la del puente’, where, in fact, there is a beautiful old bridge.
For anthroponyms, there is the obstacle of the genitive determiner in the case of -aren, if it is not the locative -arane, -arain, -aran. In this case, this suffix would be equivalent to the other locative -tegi as in Joanikotegi, Lopetegi, Enekotegi, Otxandategi, Anastegi, Juanistegi, or -uri as in Enekuri, Neguri, Atauri. Of this type would be Garzarain and Garzain (from García), Guendulain (from Centullus), Ansoain (from Sancho, or Anso), Belascoain (from Velasco), Garindoain (from Galindo), Barbatain (from Barbatus). There is still one last explanation through -ena, ‘la de’, as in Lopena, Martinena, Simonena, Mitxelena, etc., or in -ene, as in Perurene, Enrikene, Matxiñene, etc.
The coincidence of two present-day Basque names, Bas-ain and Indur-ain, with those of Iberian inscriptions of Basque names Baes.adine and Indur.adine is striking. Another of the Iberian names, Balci.adin, can be compared with the Basque Balz.ola and Balza.a.tegi, and Nalbe.aden with Nalb.arta. In any case, the problem is still in the planning stage.
Refs:
- Michelena, L.: Basque Surnames. San Sebastián, 1955, 38
- Caro Baroja, Julio: Materiales para una historia de la lengua vasca en su relación con la latina. Salamanca, 59-76
- Estornés, Lasa: Origins of the Basques, t. II, 288 and t. III, 238-241.
- López Mendizábal, I.: Etimologías de apellidos vascos. Buenos Aires, 1958, 133-142.