What the Canary Islands are really named after............Part Two.

Whoops!
I recently wrote a blog about where the Canary Islands got their name from, turns out, after several angry emails, that the situation isn’t quite as cut and dry as I made it seem. Accepted history is, as I blogged, that the Canary Islands are named after the dogs, (see my previous blog), whist the birds are named after the Canary Islands from which they come, rather than the other way around.

Sounds confusing?

Well what can you expect from a series of Islands that at certain times in history have been thought to be the Fortunate Isles, The Garden of the Hesperides and or the lost continent of Atlantis?
There’s no direct proof for any of the above by the way, but as any good conspiracy theorist will tell you the theories can’t be disproved either.
Anyway back to the name, there are three generally accepted theories each with it’s own proponents and doubters.
So in brief;
Dogs have been important in the Canary Islands in all known history, going right back to the ancient, Guanche, inhabitants. Archaeological excavations in several burial caves in Tenerife have shown that the dog was buried with his master, so it could "guide the soul to the region of the dead".
When the the Mauritanian King Juba II, sent a marine expedition to the islands, between 30 and 25 BC, the discovery was described by Pliny, who wrote that the Canaries received this name "for their dogs, two of which were sent to Juba".
Apparently, "Juba was very happy with his strong and intelligent dogs and when he marked the island on his map he called it the "Island of Dogs". He wrote the name on his map in Latin, "canes". (Mauritania was then part of the Roman Empire.) He probably only meant, "Look that's where my puppies came from" or, "Go here if you want a free hunting dog". )
However, regardless of what Plinius wrote, the fact is that the island today called Gran Canaria was originally inhabited by a tribe who called themselves the Canarii". They are said to have had North African, Berber origins.
People started to call all islands "the Islands of Canaria", from which they were later called "Canary Islands". Again, we are told that the name derives probably from a North African tribe (the Canarii) or possibly the Latin term Insularia Canaria meaning Island of the Dogs. Take your pick on your favourite theory!
There is also a further opinion - from Historian, José Juan Jiménez, of the Museo de la Naturaleza y el Hombre (Museum of Nature and Man) in Tenerife - that Pliny mucked up his translation and that the Canaries, in reality, owe their name to the "cannis marinus", a species of large monk seal that populated the coasts until the 15th Century.
Although the seals disappeared, mainly disease and over hunting, it is still possible they gave their name to the islands.
So what’s your favourite theory? Or have you visited the Islands and have heard a better one?
Let me know here.

Happy Cruising