Guanches (also: Guanchis or Guanchetos) is the name given to the aboriginal Berber inhabitants of the Canary Islands. It is believed that they migrated to the archipelago sometime between 1000 BCE and 100 BCE or perhaps earlier. While it is generally considered that the Guanches no longer exist as a distinct ethnicity, traces of their culture can still be found, such as Silbo, the "whistled language" of La Gomera Island.

The native term guanchinet or achinet literally translated means "person of Tenerife" (from Guan = person and Chinet = Tenerife). It was modified, according to Juan Núñez de la Peña, by the Castilians into "Guanchos". Though etymologically being an ancient, Tenerife-specific, term, the word guanche is used nowadays to refer the prehispanic aboriginal inhabitants of the entire archipelago.

The Roman author and military officer, Pliny the Elder, drawing upon the accounts of Juba II, king of Mauretania, stated that a Mauretanian expedition to the islands around 50 BCE found the ruins of great buildings, but otherwise no population to speak of. If this account is accurate, it may suggest that the Guanches were not the only inhabitants, or the first ones; or that the expedition simply did not explore the islands thoroughly.^{[citation needed]}