El Hierro - Name

Name

The name El Hierro, although phonetically identical to the Spanish word for 'iron', is generally thought to be derived instead from one of several words in the Guanche language of the pre-Hispanic inhabitants, known as Bimbaches. Juan de Abreu Galindo (in a manuscript translated and published by George Glas in 1764) gives the native name of the island as Esero (or Eseró), meaning 'strong'. According to Abreu Galindo, the Bimbaches, not having iron originally, called the strong metal of the Spanish alternately by their own word for 'strong' and by its Spanish name, hierro, and from there transferred the alternation of names to their island. Richard Henry Major, however, in notes on his translation of Le Canarien, observes that the Guanche word hero or herro, meaning 'cistern', could easily have lapsed into hierro by a process of folk etymology. It is believed that the Bimbaches had to construct cisterns to save fresh rainwater. The Gran diccionario guanche gives the meaning of the Guanche word hero in Spanish as "fuente" ('spring ').

The association with iron is evident in the names of the island in other languages as early as the 18th century: Portuguese Ferro, French l'île de Fer, and Latin Insula Ferri. Some sources, evidently persuaded by the meaning of Spanish hierro, imply that iron is abundant on the island, while others pointedly assert that it is not.