Buenechea

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Buenechea is a Basque family name, with variant Bonechea. Since the prefixes -Bon and -Buen are not properly Basque, it may be supposed that all families with this name are in the end related and stem from a misspelling or corruption of their name (probably originally Guenechea or Goyenechea) in the middle ages.

They are especially numerous in Guipuzcoa. The 18th Century Naval Captain Domingo de Bonechea, a native of Getaria, was despatched to Tahiti by the Viceroy of Peru when it emerged that Captain Cook had landed there. He made several expeditions to these islands, logged much of their language, and was buried there.

Vicente de Bonechea, who later spelled his name Buenechea, was an entrepreneur who moved from Zarauz to San Sebastian in the 1850s. Known as "Vicente Txiki," he had a salting business whose barrels were used as the drums for the first Tamborradas in the 1850s. His son Pedro ("Perico Chipiron") was a judge and property owner who acquired buildings in Aldamar, San Sebastian, and businesses in the nearby old quarter, which still survive as "Buenechea y Hernando".