Date
Name Fayna
Gender Feminine
Usage Guanche, Spanish (Canarian)
Other Forms FormsFaina
Theme light
Edit Status Status
Meaning & History
Derived from Guanche *fāh-inaɣ meaning "our light". According to Juan de Abréu Galindo's Historia de la conquista de las siete islas Canarias (published 1632), this was the name of the wife of Zonzamas, a Guanche king on the island of Lanzarote. She was the mother of Princess Ico by a Biscayan privateer named Martín Ruíz de Avendaño, who took shelter on Lanzarote in 1377 and slept with the queen during his stay (supposedly a customary act of hospitality in local Guanche culture).