The Basque spelling of our name is Buztanobi (with an umlaut--double dot—over the "u." Probably the change in spelling was to keep the pronounciation correct. The "z" in Basque has the sound of our "s." There is no "y" used in that language, but the Basque "i" has the sound of our English "e."

The Basque language uses the Roman alphabet with some omissions and slight changes.

Thus the "u" has an umlaut over it.

An historian and member of the Basque Academy, Jean-Louis Devant says that our family name comes from the Basque word for "clay." Our ancestors may have been clay gatherers for the potters.

A Pastor Bustanoby was involved in a translation of the New Testament into Basque in 1571. He assisted Joanes Leizarraga (Jean de Lissarrague), who had been commissioned by Jeanne d'Albret, the Calvinist mother of Henry IV, to do this work.

Another Pastor Bustanoby led a Protestant church in the capital of Soule, Mauleon, in 1661. A mob of Roman Catholics were going to throw him off a bridge when the Catholic Bishop came to his rescue and hid him in his home.

According to the historian Jean-Louis, our family was of good reputation and highly respected in the province of Soule. Jean de Licarrague was to the Basques what Luther was to the Germans, giving their people the Scriptures in their own tongue.