Buenechea

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Buenechea is a Basque family name, with variants Bonechea and Bonachea. Under modern Basque orthography the name is spelled Buenetxea, and some families follow this. 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. A family of gentry called de Bonechea was established at Asteasu. Of these, Domingo de Bonechea married Francisca de Golindano; their son Pedro de Bonechea y Golindano married Antonia de Manterola y Basurto, and their son Ignacio de Bonechea y Manterola was registered as a gentleman in Zumaia in 1725. He was possibly the father or uncle of the Naval Captain and explorer Domingo de Bonechea e Iribar (8 August 1711-26 January 1775), a native of Getaria, who was dispatched to Tahiti in command of the Santa Maria Magdalena by Manuel de Amat y Juniet, the Viceroy of Peru, when it emerged that Captain Cook had landed there. He named the island of Santo Domingo after himself. He made several expeditions to these islands, logged much of their language, and was buried there.

Another relative of his, who was also a native of Guetaria and its Mayor, was Manuel de Agote y Bonechea (1775-1803), who kept an interesting diary of his travels with the Spanish Royal Philippines Company.

The pilot of the doomed ship Oriflama was one Manuel de Buenechea, while the ship which Amat sent to search for the Oriflama's remains was commanded by Juan Antonio de Bonachea; it is likely that both were closely related to each other and to the Domingo de Bonechea mentioned above.

Vicente de Bonechea, who later spelled his name Buenechea, was an entrepreneur who moved from Zarauz to San Sebastián 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.