Highlights
- Before colonisation, Filipino names were inspired by nature, cultural and religious beliefs, characteristics and familial affinity.
- For taxation, census and family purposes, Governor-General Narciso Claveria made use of the Catálogo alfabético de apellidos.
- There is no standardised way of naming, especially first names, in the Philippines in contemporary times.
"My full name is Jennifer Loy Loy is based on my dad's name 'Luis'. I can only imagine he called me Loy because it was an aspiration for a son," Macquarie University Linguistics Lecturer Loy Lising says.
Being named after a parent is only one of the many ways Filipinos are named. Loy explains some of the other factors, and it has a lot to do with history, nature and religion.
Sociolinguist Loy Lising. Source: Loy Lising
A small animistic population
"During the pre-Spanish period, the population of the Indigenous people of the Philippines was small so naming was mostly an attribution of first names. Names were largely based on nature, cultural and spiritual beliefs," Loy shares.
She says names based on words relevant to deity or Bathala ('God') and langit ('sky' or 'heaven') were common.
Topography and habitation were also influential when it came to naming.
According to Loy, names based on words relevant to deity or Bathala ('God') and langit ('sky' or 'heaven') were common. Source: Allen Daryl Castillo from Pexels
"Geographical features and topography where people were born or lived were important," Loy explains.
"I remember I had a teacher in primary school who had the last name 'Batomalaque'. His last name is spelled in a Spanish way; but when you spell it out in Filipino, it becomes 'Bato Malaki', which means 'big rock'. I wouldn't be surprised if his ancestors lived in a place where a big boulder was a landmark."
What a person did or who they were had a lot to do with how they were named. Their occupation, physical attributes and who they "belonged" to inspired how people were named.
"Some of the names you would come across would be 'Mangingisda' [fisherman'] or 'Maganda' ['beautiful']. What you would have is the first name of the person and the second name would be the descriptive name. For example, a person would be named 'Maria Maganda' for Maria, the beautiful one.
A common name amongst pre-colonial Indigenous Filipinos was 'mangingisda' [fisherman]. Source: mamunurpics from Pexels
"There are also the practices of patronymy and teknonymy. Essentially, patronymy is naming a child to indicate family belonging. It's a way of indicating who the child belongs to or who his or her parents are.
"This is achieved through adding 'Junior', 'II' or 'III' for sons and a diminutive form of the mother's name like Estrellita for Estrella. Teknonymy, on the other hand, is referring to the parent through the child's name such as 'Amanijuan' ['Ama ni Juan' or 'Juan's Father']."
Loy says that people in the past didn't have last names because the population was small and there was no need to distinguish between families.
Teknonymy, on the other hand, is referring to the parent through the child's name such as 'Amanijuan' ['Ama ni Juan' or 'Juan's Father']." Source: Ej Agumbay from Pexels
"There was a system to the chaos, but naming was based on individual choices and whims. There were no real standard naming conventions."
The catalogo and calendar
Standard naming conventions came with the arrival of the Spaniards and Catholicism.
"During the Spanish occupation, a governor-general by the name of Narciso Claveria y Zaldua mandated the Claveria Decree of 1849," she says.
"The published reference of the decree was the Catálogo alfabético de apellidos."
As there was no system of naming amongst Indigenous Filipinos, the government had a difficult time knowing who was who and who had paid taxes.
"The main motivation for the catalogo was to make it easier for the government to determine which family you belonged to. This sense of uniformity allowed better monitoring when it came to the census and taxation.
Standard naming conventions came with the arrival of the Spaniards and Catholicism. Source: Luis Quintero from Pexels
"Jesus Federico Hernandez, a colleague of mine from the University of the Philippines, wrote an essay about Filipino family names for the American Dictionary coming out at the end of this year. In that essay, he explains that the way the names were distributed from the catologo was in alphabetical order.
"If you come from the same town, you're more likely to have the same first letter in your surname. For example, people from Oas in Bicol had surnames beginning with 'R'. This made it easy to trace ancestry."
Loy shares that while the usual belief is that the catologo only contained Spanish last names, the list actually had a good mix of Spanish and Indigenous names that were predetermined by the Spanish government.
"Hernandez cites in his essay that Filipinos showed creativity when it came to surnames through what we call 'compounding' or putting two words together. For example, the family name Samonte isn't just Spanish. 'Sa' is a Filipino locative prefix meaning 'from' or 'in', while 'Monte' is Spanish for 'mountain'. So the family name translates to 'from/in the mountain'.
"It's interesting though that colonial mentality seemed to indicate that as early as that time, many picked Spanish last names because there was a prestige to foreignness."
While a lot viewed Spanish last names as prestigious, many looked at Catholic biblical first names as aspirational.
"What we know of that time is the great conversion to Catholicism. What came with that was the love of naming children based on scripture. Maria, Jesus, Angel...these became common names.
Catholicism had (and continues to have) a big influence on how Filipinos name their children. Source: Pixabay
"Calendars published by the church at that time became a go-to list people used to choose the names of their children. Each day contained the name of a saint whose feast day it was - like my grandmother was named 'Eulogia'. I found her name on the calendar and I believe she was named after Saint Eulogio.
"My father-in-law and his twin were also named after saints found on the calendar. My father-in-law was named 'Getulio' and his twin was named 'Simporoso'. My grandmother-in-law said all her children's names came from the calendar.
"Parents did this hoping their children would emulate the religiosity and goodness of the saints they were named after."
Chinese migrants
The Spanish weren't the only people to have had an influence on the local population's naming practices.
"In the southern part of the Philippines, a common Filipino surname is 'Basa' ['to read']," Loy shares, adding, "That is actually an influence from the original Sanskrit word 'vac' ['to speak']. It underwent semantic changes. It became 'baka' ['to read' in Malay] and then 'basa' in Filipino."
"Also, before the Spanish came, there were the Chinese who migrated to the Philippines. Keep in mind that Chinese surnames are usually monosyllabic; however, because the ones who migrated wanted to be unrecognisable and be part of the local community, they altered their last names.
The Chinese who migrated to the Philippines altered their last names so they would be unrecognisable. Source: Pixabay
"Many Chinese last names in the Philippines became disyllabic or multisyllabic - like 'Sison' ['si' is 'four' 'son' is 'grandchild'], 'Tantoco' and 'Cojuangco' ['Co' is an honorific term meaning 'big brother']."
Contemporary creativity
"On the other hand, when it comes to contemporary ways of naming, they're based on many rich conventions," she says.
"Thinking about it though, these conventions have a lot to do with love for family and creativity."
According to Loy, some Filipino names can be derived from maternal or paternal grandparents or portmanteaus of parents' names.
"Portmanteau or blending is when you clip two words and bring them together to form a new word. For example, 'motorised hotel' becomes 'motel'. What you see in Filipino names is a portmanteau of a father's and mother's names.
Filipinos love being creative when it comes to naming their children. Source: Migs Reyes from Pexels
"In Australia, your middle name is your second name. In the Philippines, your middle name is not your second name but your mother's maiden name. We carry our mother's maiden name as a way of honouring her lineage. It shows our love for family.
"We also have strategies for endearment when it comes to nicknaming. This is to achieve 'cuteness'. We call it hypocorism which comes from the Greek word for 'pet name' and is often given to children by older relatives. For example, 'Jun' is the diminutive of 'Junior', then we reduplicate it for endearment so it becomes 'Jun-Jun'.
Loy shares we also add "III" or "Junior" after a first name to ascribe patrimony. She shares that this is another way to account where the child came from. Source: Migs Reyes from Pexels
"Sometimes the diminutive can't even be recognised from the original one. For example, I have a friend named Luisa whose nickname is Cooly.
"Another strategy for endearment is using the Spanish suffix -ito or -ita. For example, Angel will name his son Angelito, meaning 'little angel'."
While family is highly influential when it comes to naming, Loy shares that contemporary Filipino names also have a lot to do with people's penchant for uniqueness and creativity.
"Another strategy for endearment is using the suffix -ito or -ita. For example, Angel will name his son Angelito, meaning 'little angel'." Source: Josh Willink from Pexels
"Take for example famous boxer Manny Pacquiao who named his daughter Lady Elizabeth and, people who gave birth in 2020 named their babies Sanitizer and Lockdown," Loy laughs.
While many may deem the additional 'h' in 'Jhennifer' or the use of 'Dranreb' instead of the original 'Bernard' as unusual, Loy shares that new Filipino parents are getting more creative by the day.
"I read on the Philippine Daily Inquirer that there's this web developer named Mac who named his son Hypertext Markup Language or HTML. Mac's real name is actually Macaroni '85.
"There's this web developer named Mac who named his son Hypertext Markup Language or HTML. Mac's real name is actually Macaroni '85." Source: Sora Shimazaki from Pexels
"The birth of his son was announced by his sister, Sincerely Yours '98, on Facebook. Macaroni and Sincerely Yours have another sister named Spaghetti '88; but what's even more unusual is that Spaghetti has two daughters named Cheese Pimiento and Parmesan Cheese. Their nicknames are Chippy and Peewee.
"My point is that there's no standard way of first naming now. It can be whatever you whim it to be."
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