Amaya (given name)
Amaya is a female given name and surname of Spanish origins, derived from the village of Amaya and its neighboring mountain in Castile and León, Spain. The name of the village, in turn, has Indo-European roots and means "am " or "mother". The suffix io-ia is also used to form action names or toponyms, implying that the meaning of Amaya or Amaia is "mother city", as it will be called later, "the capital". Another hypothesis is that the name derived from the Proto-Basque or Basque word Amaia, meaning "the end". Variations include Amaia, Amayah, Ammaya, and Amya.
Amaya was one of the main villages of the Cantabri Celtic tribes, and played a key role in the Cantabrian wars during the Roman conquest of Hispania, and later, during the Visigothic Kingdom, as the capital of the Duchy of Cantabria. In the first stages of the Reconquista, the city was part of the repopulating efforts of the Kingdom of Asturias in the border region of Bardulia, the primitive territories of Castile.
It became popular in the Basque area after the 1877 novel Amaya o los vascos en el siglo VIII.
In 1939, according to the language politics of Francoist Spain, women named Miren Amaia had to change their names to María Fin. In the 1970s, the reasons for prohibition were that it could lead to confusion about gender. It went against good behavior and it was a Gipsy surname.
A Japanese surname of unrelated origin also exists, "usually written with characters meaning 'heavenly valley'".
People with the name Amaya, as derived from its Spanish origin, include:
Given name
Amaya
- Amaya Uranga, Spanish singer, member of the Basque folk/pop sextet Mocedades
- Amaya Salazar, Dominican artist
- Amaya Arzuaga, Spanish fashion designer
- Amaya Garbayo, Spanish swimmer
- Amaya Forch, Chilean actress and pop singer
- Amaya Valdemoro, Spanish basketball player
- Amaya Gastaminza, Spanish basketball player
- Amaya Alonso, Spanish swimmer
- Maja Keuc, Slovenian singer known as Amaya
- Amaya Coppens Nicaraguan student activist
- Amaya Espinal, Dominican-American nurse, model and winner of Love Island USA
Amaia
- Amaia Andrés, Spanish middle-distance runner
- Amaia Piedra, Spanish athlete who specialized in long-distance running
- Amaia Montero, Spanish Basque singer/songwriter, formerly part of the Spanish pop-band La Oreja de Van Gogh
- Amaia Olabarrieta, Spanish football player
- Amaia Salamanca, Spanish actress
- Amaia González de Garibay, Spanish handball player
- Amaia Erbina, Spanish rugby sevens player
- Amaia Peña, Spanish footballer
- Amaia Romero, Spanish singer, representing Spain in Eurovision Song Contest 2018 as a duo Amaia y Alfred
Surname
- See Amaya