 | |
| Gender | Male |
|---|---|
| Origin | |
| Word/name | Basque |
| Other names | |
| Derived | Basque Eneko, ene- "mine", -ko (hypocoristic) "my little (love/dear)" |
| Related names | Eneko, Iñaki, Ignatius, Yñigo |
Inigo derives from the Castilian rendering (Íñigo) of the medieval Basque name Eneko.[1] Ultimately, the name means "my little (love)".[2] While mostly seen among the Iberian diaspora, it also gained a limited popularity in the United Kingdom.
Early traces of the name Eneko go back to Roman times, when the Bronze of Ascoli included the name forms Enneges and Ennegenses among a list of Iberian horsemen granted Roman citizenship in 89 B.C.E.[3] In the early Middle Ages, the name appears in Latin, as Enneco, and Arabic, as Wannaqo (ونقه) in reports of Íñigo Arista (c. 790–851 or 852), a Basque who ruled Pamplona. It can be compared with its feminine form, Oneca. It was frequently represented in medieval documents as Ignatius (Spanish "Ignacio"),[citation needed] which is thought to be etymologically distinct, coming from the Roman name Egnatius, from Latin ignotus, meaning "unknowing",[4] or from the Latin word for fire, ignis. The familiar Ignatius may simply have served as a convenient substitution when representing the unfamiliar Íñigo/Eneko in scribal Latin.
