IRUNGARAI Kerexeta says in his books: In Sara (Laburdi), in the Baigorri valey (Benabarra) in 1645, also in Gipuzkoa and Argentina.

Garai means: High, IRUN means the place of the Town, probably comes from IRI UNE, Iri is Town and Une means place, in this case we cannot put together in order to translate the two parts of the surname, IRUN is the name of a family, and they probably made other house in a place higher than the original, so to make different they called to the new house, the House Irun in the High part. Althoug Kerexeta says that the origin is the Basque French Country there are many Irungarai in the north of Nabarra (where Amaiur is located)

Amaiur is a very simbolic place for the basques, because the last defensors of the Independence of Navarre were refugees in the Amaiur Castle, and there took place the last battle defending the independence.

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oscarg_sol (at) hotmail dot com 15-Feb-2007 15:42 #4597 In Cuencame region (Durango, Mexico) there's a lot people with this surname (Cuencame and La Cuchilla towns)
ajh5743 at yahoo dot co dot uk 29-Jun-2005 11:58 #1721 Perhaps the oldest recorded example of the toponym, IRUN, is "OLKA IRUN", the legend on a coin issue in the East Iberian script and dating from the period prior to the Sertorian Rebellion. OLKA is a title of unknown meaning. IRUN probably refers to Pamplona, still known in Basque as IRUNA. It may not be too far-fetched to describe Pamplona as the Basque Country's oldest town. Angus J Huck
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Last updated: Tue, 27 Feb 2007 - 19:31:13

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