The Basque people (the oldest in Europe according to anthropologists) have been living in a small territory known as Euskal Herria, Navarre or the Basque Country-Navarre for thousands of years, stubbornly holding on to an ancient language: Euskara or Basque. This language was used by our ancestors to name their houses, farmhouses, neighborhoods and towns. The old Basque custom of resorting to the names of these houses, farmhouses, neighborhoods and towns to identify their inhabitants has resulted in the creation of some surnames that have been passed down from generation to generation reminding us of an original ancestral home. Even in the 21^st century thousands of Basque surnames, often far from their ancestral homeland and shared by millions of people throughout the world, still survive. If a country like China, with a surface area of 3,700,000 square miles (9,500,000 square kilometers), has produced 21,000 surnames, how is it possible that the Basque Country, with only 8,000 square miles (20,000 square kilometers), has been able to generate 40,000 surnames?