FAMILIA : MENO

This is an Inalåhan name.

It is also an indigenous name, but its meaning is uncertain.  Påle' Román's dictionary has one definition for "meno" and he says it means "basura" or "trash." But since Påle' Román did not use the glota, it is unclear if this word is the same as the last name Meno, which has the glota sound, though it is not written with a glota.  Or, perhaps, Påle' Román's word is me'no, or menno', neither of which are Meno (with its final glota sound). So although there was a Chamorro word for "trash" which Påle' Román spelled "meno," we can't be totally sure how the word sounded and if it is the same as the last name Meno.

There are Menos listed in Spanish records as far back as 1835; one Pedro Meno is the teniente (vice mayor) of Inalåhan that year.  The village only had around 260 inhabitants at the time.

One of the village teachers (usually there was just one for the whole village) was Jose Meno, listed in the roll of school teachers in 1869.  The U.S. was still feeling the effects of the Civil War then!

By the 1897 Census, these were the branches of the Meno clan :

INALÅHAN

JOAQUIN NAPUTI MENO
married to Alejandra Santos Crisostomo

FELIPE NAPUTI MENO
married to Soledad Aguon Paulino

VICENTE CHARGUALAF MENO
married to Candelaria Mendiola Delgado

JOSE MENO
married to Genoveva Delgado Naputi

MALESSO'

JOSE ALELAJE MENO

married to Francisca Nasayof Chargualaf

Jose was born in Inalåhan and moved to Malesso'.  His wife Francisca was from Malesso'.  Jose's middle name (his mother's maiden name) is possibly, in Chamorro, Håle' (root) Låhe (son, male).  In those days, spelling was not uniform and I have seen this named spelled Jalelage in Spanish records, which the Spaniards would have pronounced ha-le-la-he.

HAGÅTÑA

FELIX BLAS MENO
married to Amparo Benavente

There are a few other Menos scattered here and there in the 1897 Census but they are either women or bachelors who wouldn't be considered the founders of surviving branches of today's Meno clan.