Canary Islands The connection to dogs is retained in their depiction on the islands' coat-of-arms. It is considered that the aborigines of Gran Canaria called themselves "Canarios". It is possible that after being conquered, this name was used in plural in Spanish, i.e., as to refer to all of the islands as the Canarii-as. What is certain is that the name of the islands does not derive from the canary bird; rather, the birds are named after the islands. Tenerife is the largest and most populous island of the archipelago. Gran Canaria, with 865,070 inhabitants, is both the Canary Islands' second most
Religion in the Canary Islands the Romanian Orthodox Church and the new "Orthodox Church of the Canary Islands (Patriarchate of Serbia)", which is a small community within the Spanish Orthodox Church, under the Patriarchate of Serbia and in communion with the universal Orthodox Church. Its headquarters is in "Las Caletillas" (municipality of Candelaria in Tenerife). There are also small communities of Jehovah's Witnesses and those belonging to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, of which there are 2,300 members in the Canary Islands. On the island of Tenerife there are three Mormon centers: in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Los Cristianos and San Cristóbal