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You would immediately think that the Canary Islands are named after the bright yellow birds and expect to find swarms of them when visiting but this is not the case. In reality no one seems to know where or why the island were given this name but there are a number of theories

The name can actually be translated from the ¨latin Canariae Insulae¨ which means Islands of dogs which was given first to one of the capital islands Gran Canaria because it had a vast number of large dogs. It is also thought that it could refer to a large amount of Monk Seals which were also known as sea dogs and lived in this region many years ago.

There is also evidence that the original inhabitants of the islands, known as Guanches used to worship dogs.

Although it is a bit of a mystery as to where the name originates, we do no that it does refer to dogs and not birds. The coat of arm for the Canaries show the 7 inhabited islands supported by 2 dogs.