From some French scientists and scholars we do know the meaning of this truly, indigenous surname.
The Freycinet Expedition (1817) was a visit to the Marianas by those French investigators, who left us many reports about just about everything concerning our islands, including some notes about language.
They tell us that SIPIK meant fisherman. Taisipik would therefore mean "without a fisherman." Perhaps that meant the person lacked a fisherman in the family. Other people had the surname Gofsipik, meaning "good fisherman," and others Sipikña, meaning "his or her fisherman," or "a better fisherman" than others.
Father Callistus Lopinot, a German missionary in Saipan became a student of Chamorro and visited Luta, as well, says that, in Luta, to fish is sumibek (sumipik).
The Taisipics seem to have roots in the old village of Pågo, and when that village was closed due to the smallpox epidemic in 1856 which killed off a large part of the small community, the survivors moved to other villages, and the Taisipics seem to have moved to Yoña where they were documented in the 1920s.
AN OLD NAME
Being indigenous, it's no surprise that TAISIPIC is a name found in old Spanish records.
There was a Manuel Taisipic who is listed as a pig pen worker for the government farm in 1796.
Taisipics were found living in different villages in the 1700s; in Hågat, Malesso', Inalåhan, Sinajaña and Hagåtña.
Since the old records also show that a number of Taisipics were intermarried with well-known families from the now extinct village of Pågo, such as the Taitingfong and Quichocho families, I think there's a good chance that the Taisipics, at least some of them, were from Pågo. Another indication this might be true is that, when the Spaniards closed down the village of Pågo when the village died out from the smallpox epidemic in 1856, many of the Pågo people moved to Yoña, and the Taisipics eventually were found in Yoña, although there are in Hagåtña in the late 1800s, too. Some Pågo families moved to Hagåtña, then to Yoña later on, where their farms were.
TAISIPIC - QUICHOCHO
It seems all the Taisipics of Guam are descendants of JOSÉ TAISIPIC and SUSANA QUICHOCHO. Susana is still alive in the 1897 Guam Census.
BALBINO (or BALVINO) QUICHOCHO TAISIPIC was their son, and Balbino married Carmen Mafnas.
Their son GREGORIO MAFNAS TAISIPIC married Ana Campos Taitingfong. This couple had numerous children. A great number of Taisipics on Guam are the descendants of GREGORIO and ANA.
Balbino had a sister MARIA, who had a daughter ANA (or JUANA) TAISIPIC out of wedlock. Ana married Juan Quidachay. Maria then married José Pangelinan Siguenza.
Balbino had a brother Juan, who had mental issues and caused some problems in the community as reported in court documents.
The government records speak of a Jose Quichocho Taisipic, born in 1874, so probably another brother of Balbino's, but he seems to disappear from sight and no family, it seems, comes from him on Guam.
Most of the Taisipics today, therefore, are the descendants of GREGORIO MAFNAS TAISIPIC and ANA CAMPOS TAITINGFONG.
