ATAO is apparently an indigenous Chamorro name and a family with roots in Tepungan, which is a part of Piti. A branch moved from Tepungan to Saipan and they spell it Attao. Priests in the old days spelled the same name in different ways, according to their own thinking, and people just went along with it. Many people couldn't read or write, anyway, in those days, so whatever way the official spelled it was just fine with them.
My wager is that Atao is an indigenous name for more than one reason. First of all, it is generally true that the non-Chamorros who settled on Guam in the late 1600s and in the early 1700s almost all settled in Hagåtña, many of them marrying Chamorro wives. It's in Hagåtña that you find the Spanish Dueñas and Camacho and the Filipino Pangelinan and Manibusan. In the rest of Guam, from Aniguak to Pågo to Inalåhan and all the rest, indigenous names dominate overwhelmingly; Babauta, Taigima', Na'mase' and all the others. In the 1758 Census we find a Pedro Atao in Hågat and a Toribio Atao in Tepungan, married to María Gupotña (also an indigenous name; gupot meaning "feast.") Thanks to Bernard Punzalan for confirming the 1758 Census information.
Sure there are people named Atao in the Philippines but so there are in Peru, as well. These are more than likely coincidences and there are probably differences in the pronunciation of Atao in these places.
Furthermore, the prefix A- and the root word tao are very Chamorro.
As far back as 1848, we find in the Spanish documents a man named Bernardino Atao, who is a Cabeza de Barangay (neighborhood leader) in the village of Asan. Asan is not far from Tepungan and people from both villages sometimes moved between them.
In the same year, but this time in Tepungan, is a man named Dionisio Atao who is the Alguacil (sheriff or bailiff) of that village. We don't know if Bernardino and Dionisio are related, but there's a good chance they are.
MARIANO ATAO
At any rate, what we can say is that all the Ataos/Attaos of Guam and Saipan today are the descendants of a man named MARIANO ATAO who was married to CEFERINA CHARGUALAF. We can assume they lived in Tepungan because all their children lived in Tepungan.
From what I can tell, from the old records, MARIANO and CEFERINA had four children; three daughters and only one son.
Since it is the son who hopefully has male heirs to continue the family name, I'll mention him first. He was PEDRO CHARGUALAF ATAO. According to the 1897 Guam Census, he was born around 1863, but these dates are sometimes unreliable and can be off a few years.
PEDRO CHARGUALAF ATAO
Pedro married María Pérez Megofña, most likely from Asan where that family comes from.
Pedro, too, had mostly daughters and only one son, Vicente. It is Vicente Megofña Atao who left Guam sometime after 1899 and settled in Saipan. There his name was usually spelled Vicente Magofña Attao, and his descendants in Saipan spell it so.
Pedro and María's daughters were Ana, María, Rosa and Consolación.
Ordinarily, daughters eventually marry and their children carry the father's name. But when a woman has a child outside of marriage, the child goes by the single mother's name.
This was the case with Ana Megofña Atao, daughter of Pedro and María. She had a son Juan in 1914 who married Josefa Champaco Jesús. Juan and Josefa had two daughters but only one son, George, carrying forward the name Atao, but he eventually moved to the States.
MARIANO AND CEFERINA'S THREE DAUGHTERS
Ana married Vicente Salas Nededog. This family settled eventually in Vicente's home village of Hågat, where his branch of Nededogs are known as familian Atao, on account of his wife Ana.
Josefa married Juan Megofña Pérez of Asan. He was the blood brother of María Pérez Megofña who married Pedro Chargualaf Atao. So a brother and sister married a sister and brother. That often happened in Chamorro society back then; two siblings marrying two siblings.
Concepción married Mariano Salas Cruz.
SAIPAN : VICENTE MAGOFÑA ATTAO
When Vicente moved from Guam to Saipan he married Natividad Cabrera San Nicolás in Saipan, the daughter of Juan San Nicolás and María Taisague Cabrera.
Their son Pedro San Nicolás Attao married Ninfa Camacho Torres.
Their other son José San Nicolás Attao married Rosario Mendiola Cabrera. José was elected to the Saipan Congress in 1954.
Brothers Pedro and José continued the Attao line in Saipan.
Former Saipan Congressman José SN Attao and wife Rosario Cabrera
(photo courtesy of Chris Attao Concepción)
Vicente and Natividad also had daughters. Isabel married Ignacio Manahane Benavente. Maria married Alejandro Quitano Bermudes. Margarita married George Cruz Dueñas. Carmen married Cesario Taitano Concepción. Teresita never married.
Some of the Attaos in Saipan moved to Guam over the years. Right after the war, when travel between Guam and Saipan was more frequent since both were under US jurisdiction, a number of Saipan Attaos came to Guam and resided at first with their Guam Atao relatives. Some made Guam their permanent home.
Today, there are no Ataos on the Guam voter registration rolls, but there are a few Attaos registered to vote on Guam.
And just as George Atao moved to the States, some Attaos also reside today in the mainland.
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