Filipino name

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Filipinos have various naming customs. They most commonly blend the older Spanish system and Anglo-American conventions, where there is a distinction between the "Christian name" and the "surname". The construct containing several middle names is common to all systems, but the multiple "first" names and only one middle and last name are a result of the blending of American and Spanish naming customs.

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Today, Filipinos usually abide by the Spanish system of using both paternal and maternal surnames, with the latter (maternal) used as the "middle name".[ why? ] The particle y is used only for legal purposes and is otherwise dropped. The middle name in its natural sense would have been the second name if the person had one, but it is never counted as an individual's given name.

Historical context and examples

In ancient times, the Tagalogs had a naming system that changed via family dynamics. A Tagalog man (especially a chief) would lose his name, take his first-born's name, and become known as "child's father"; rather than his offspring adopting his surname like today. If he was baptized into Christianity, he would take a Spanish "Christian name" but retain his native name as surname. For example, Calao's father became Don Luis Amanicalao (Lord Luis, a chief of Tondo, Calao's Father). This also applied to mothers (e.g., Inanicao) etc. One also gained numerous "poetic" titles (i.e., "pamagat"; lit. "to have something to go before", today literally translated as "title", from where the prenom "Gat" is derived) from his renown/actions (e.g. valiance in battle) or other naming means (like a naming feast for those without offspring). [1]

Historical examples: Manila/Tagalog chiefs listed in the Tondo Conspiracy (1587–88) Phelipe Amarlangagui/Amarlangagui ('Felipe, Ama ni Langawi'), Luis Amanicalao (Luis, Ama ni Calao), and Omaghicon/Amaghikon (Ama ni Hikon). [2]

Another example is found in the only surviving baybayin writings; i.e., the Sto. Thomas Land Titles (1613-1625). In Document B (1625), Line 12, [lower-alpha 1] a certain Amadaga was named. The contract stated that the owner of the land adjacent to the one sold in the contract was Maria Gada who had acquired it from Amadaga. Although no other context was given in the document, it is quite possible that Maria Gada is the daughter of "Ama ni Gada" (misspelled) and inherited the land from him as a legacy. [3]

Given names

Filipinos may have one or more official given names (as registered in their birth certificates and baptismal certificates) and various types of temporary or permanent nicknames. Filipinos commonly give themselves or each other nicknames and monikers. Some nicknames are carried for life, and others are used only with certain groups. A person can have multiple nicknames at different ages or among different groups of people.

Abbreviations, combinations, and elisions

Long given names can be shortened in various ways. Emmanuel can become Eman, Manuel, Manolo, Manny, or Manoy, and Consolación can be shortened to Connie, Cons, Sol, or Chona.

Filipino women with two given names such as María Cristina or María Victoria may choose to abbreviate the very common María (in honor of the Virgin Mary) as Ma. (with a period), thus rendering these given names as Ma. Cristina or Ma. Victoria. Filipino males with two given names such as José Mariano or José Gerardo could follow the same practice of abbreviating José as Jo., though this is not as consistent. Another common practice seen in other cultures (most commonly with Spanish conventions) is to elide or combine multiple given names into one nickname. The aforementioned María Cristina and María Victoria may thus acquire the nicknames Maricris and Marivic. Thus the Filipino names Maricel, Maritoni, Marijo, Maritess, and Maricon come from Maria Celia (or Celeste), María Antonieta (or Antonia), María Josefa (or Josefina), María Teresa, and María Concepción (or either Consuelo or Consolación), respectively.

A related custom is that parents combine their given names to create a name for their child. For example:

Some first names like Lodegrano or Lorimer may have been invented on the spot by the parents or be derived from some partially-remembered foreign term. Other coined first names have unusual spellings or spellings that are pronounced differently.

Honorifics and titles

Honorifics and titles are sometimes used in place of a person's actual name. As such, titles for family elders are often used by the younger persons and then adopted by the wider community: Apo (grandson/granddaughter). Lolo (grandfather) and Lola (grandmother) are used for senior elders; Tatay/Itay/Ama (father) or Tito/Tiyo/Tsong (uncle) and Nanay/Inay/Ina (mother) or Tita/Tiya/Tsang (aunt) for middle-aged elders; Manong or Kuya (elder brother) and Manang or Ate (elder sister) for anyone slightly older than the person speaking.

People in the Filipino community are often addressed by their military or police rank, professional titles or job descriptions, either with or without their names (e.g., Architect, Attorney, Engineer, Teacher etc.), instead of Mister, Miss, Ms., or Mrs., especially when the addressee's name is not yet known by the speaker. That applies to all people that are living and working in the Philippines. Sir and Madam/Ma'am are usually not used before a nickname.

Numerals and birth order patterns

People with the same name as their father are registered as Junior (abbreviated to Jr.) or numbered with Roman numerals (III, IV, V, etc.); their father adds Senior (Sr.) after his surname or suffix. Inevitably, the younger person tends to be nicknamed Junior, Jun or Junjun permanently. [ citation needed ] That can also be applied to numerals; i.e., the nickname can be Third or Fourth. Therefore, a family necessarily bestows a variety of unofficial nicknames to distinguish the various people with nearly identical official given names.

Many nicknames are bestowed by parents or other elders on children while they are still toddlers (e.g., Boy, Toto/Totoy (young boy), Girlie, Baby, etc.) and these nicknames are often carried by the person throughout their lives. These names may follow a certain pattern in certain cases, such as beginning with a certain letter of the alphabet (e.g., Diego Arnel, Diamond Amelia), such that all their initials will be the same (e.g. DAZL if the middle name is Zulueta and the surname is Lim). An example is former Senator Joker Arroyo's brother, Jack. [4] Children can also be named after certain themes, such as countries, car trademarks, and popular brand names. For instance, World Champion boxer and incumbent Senator Manny Pacquiao named his two daughters Queen Elizabeth and Princess. [4]

Reversals, indigenized names, and anglicization

The Filipino given name Dranreb was invented by reversing the spelling of the English name Bernard, and someone calling himself Nosrac bears the legal name Carson. Joseph Ejército Estrada, the 13th president of the Philippines, began as a movie actor and received his nickname Erap as an adult; it comes from Pare spelled backwards (from Spanish compadre, which means "fellow godparent"). [4]

An old custom is to replace or insert Filipino phonemes into a Spanish or English name: Edwin becomes Aweng, Eduardo becomes Dwarding, Roberto becomes Berting, Ponciano becomes either Popoy, Onse, or Syano, and Ricardo becomes Karding. Sometimes there is a tendency to convert a grandiose given name into something more mundane, such as when John Paul becomes JayPee, Peter John becomes Peejong, Anthony becomes Tonyo and María Elena becomes Ineng or Inyang. Complementary to this is the practise of anglicizing (with the implication of "modernising") a Spanish given name. Thus, José Roberto becomes Joseph Robert (further shortened to Joebert) and Eduardo becomes Edward and then Eddy or Eddie Boy (sometimes further shortened to Daboy).

Monikers and progressional names

The variety of Filipino names, some of which have with negative connotations in the English language, often take English speakers by surprise. [4] However, most Filipinos usually do not notice these negative connotations unless they are pointed out. [4]

Many Filipino celebrities and high-status personalities, such as actors and politicians, are often more well known by their nicknames than their actual given names. [4] One example is film and television celebrity German Moreno, who is more known by the nickname Kuya Germs (kuya = elder brother).

Surnames

Map of the common surnames in the Philippines by province or independent city Filipino most common surnames map (by province and independent city).svg
Map of the common surnames in the Philippines by province or independent city

Indigenous languages

Though most Filipinos adopted Spanish surnames, some preserved surnames that derive from words in indigenous languages, like Tagalog, Visayan (Cebuano and Hiligaynon), Ilocano, Kapampangan, and Pangasinan. Many indigenous surnames derive from words displaying qualities of people, especially those related to strength (e.g., Tagalog Panganiban), defiance (e.g. Tagalog Dimayuga), or settlement (e.g.Hiligaynon Magbanua).

Most indigenous surnames are spelled closely following the Spanish-derived orthographic conventions of the time. Many of these words are spelled differently today in the various Philippine languages (following spelling reforms since the late 19th century). [5]

Cordilleran

Unlike their lowlander counterparts, Igorots living in the Cordillera Central in northern Luzon were not conquered by the Spaniards and preserved their naming customs from foreign influence. Each group had their own naming customs, but generally, like Indonesian names, there is only one given name and no surname to speak of. The given name's meaning is usually connected to natural phenomena or objects, such as danum for water. Only the Igorots who had interacted with Spaniards and lowlanders for trade were given a name that follows the binomial "first name"-"surname" system, such as Mateo Cariño and Mateo Carantes.

At the beginning of the 20th century and the advent of the American occupation of the Philippines, the Igorots' naming customs slowly conformed with the national legal naming system used today, aided by the evangelization efforts of American Protestant missionaries. Most older people, however, still keep the singular given name given to them by their parents while also using the "Christian names" to conform to Philippine law. The singular given names of some individuals living in the early 20th century have since been adopted as a surname by their descendants.

Spanish

Almost all Filipinos had Spanish or Spanish-sounding surnames imposed on them for taxation purposes, but a number of them have indigenous Filipino surnames. On November 21, 1849, Governor General Narciso Clavería y Zaldúa issued a decree stating that Filipinos should adopt Spanish surnames to make census counting easier. Some Filipinos retained their native pre-colonial names, especially those who were exempted from the Clavería decree such as the descendants of rulers of the Maginoo or noble class. These surnames of the native nobility include Lacandola, Macapagal, Macabulos, and Tupas whom each descended from different Datus. They were allowed to keep the name to claim tax exemptions.

The Spanish surname category provides the most common surnames in the Philippines. [6] At the course of time, some Spanish surnames were altered (with some eventually diverged/displaced their original spelling), as resulted from illiteracy among the poor and farming class bearing such surnames, creating confusion in the civil registry and a sense of detachment from their better-off relatives. Except for the "ñ", Filipino surnames from Spanish are written without accents due to US-imported typewriters used in civil registry that lack special characters.[ citation needed ]

Chinese

Chinese Filipinos whose ancestors came to the Philippines from 1898 onward usually have single syllable Chinese surnames. On the other hand, most Chinese ancestors came to the Philippines prior to 1898 usually have multisyllablic Chinese surnames such as Gokongwei, Ongpin, Pempengco, Yuchengco, Teehankee, and Yaptinchay among such others. They were originally full Chinese names that were transliterated into Spanish orthography and adopted as surnames.

Common single-syllable Chinese Filipino surnames are Tan (陳), Lim (林), Chua (蔡), Uy (黃) and Ong (王). Most such surnames are spelled according to their Hokkien pronunciation.

There are also multiple syllable Chinese surnames that are Spanish transliterations of Hokkien words. Surnames like Tuazon (大孫, eldest grandson), Dizon (二孫, second grandson), Samson/Sanson (三孫, grandson), Sison (四孫, fourth grandson), Gozun/Gozum/Gozon/Goson (五孫, fifth grandson), Lacson (六孫, sixth grandson), Tecson/Ticzon/Tiongson/Teoxon (德孫/提克宗/頂客/东阳顺, seventh grandson), Sioson (西奥森, eight grandson) and Hizon (希森, ninth grandson) are examples of transliterations of designations that use the Hokkien suffix -son (孫) used as surnames for some Chinese Filipinos who trace their ancestry from Chinese immigrants to the Philippines during the Spanish colonial era. The surname Son/Sun (孫) is listed in the Classical Chinese text Hundred Family Surnames, perhaps shedding light on the Hokkien suffix -son used here as a surname alongside some sort of accompanying enumeration scheme.

Moros

Moros (Muslim Filipinos) usually bear surnames of Arabic origin, usually Muslim given names that were used as patronymics. Other sources of Moro surnames are clan names, especially among the Maranao and Maguindanao peoples.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Copy originally translated by Villamor, 1922

Related Research Articles

Surname conventions and laws vary around the world. This article gives an overview of surnames around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tagalog language</span> Austronesian language spoken in the Philippines

Tagalog is an Austronesian language spoken as a first language by the ethnic Tagalog people, who make up a quarter of the population of the Philippines, and as a second language by the majority. Its standardized form, officially named Filipino, is the national language of the Philippines, and is one of two official languages, alongside English.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Taglish</span> Hybrid language of English and Tagalog

Taglish or Englog is code-switching and/or code-mixing in the use of Tagalog and English, the most common languages of the Philippines. The words Taglish and Englog are portmanteaus of the words Tagalog and English. The earliest use of the word Taglish dates back to 1973, while the less common form Tanglish is recorded from 1999.

Filipinoorthography specifies the correct use of the writing system of the Filipino language, the national and co-official language of the Philippines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Languages of the Philippines</span>

There are some 130 to 195 languages spoken in the Philippines, depending on the method of classification. Almost all are Malayo-Polynesian languages native to the archipelago. A number of Spanish-influenced creole varieties generally called Chavacano along with some local varieties of Chinese are also spoken in certain communities. The 1987 constitution designates Filipino, a standardized version of Tagalog, as the national language and an official language along with English. Filipino is regulated by Commission on the Filipino Language and serves as a lingua franca used by Filipinos of various ethnolinguistic backgrounds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kapampangan language</span> Austronesian language spoken in the Philippines

Kapampangan, Capampáñgan, or Pampangan is an Austronesian language, and one of the eight major languages of the Philippines. It is the primary and predominant language of the entire province of Pampanga and southern Tarlac, on the southern part of Luzon's central plains geographic region, where the Kapampangan ethnic group resides. Kapampangan is also spoken in northeastern Bataan, as well as in the provinces of Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, and Zambales that border Pampanga. It is further spoken as a second language by a few Aeta groups in the southern part of Central Luzon. The language is known honorifically as Amánung Sísuan.

Philippine English is a variety of English native to the Philippines, including those used by the media and the vast majority of educated Filipinos and English learners in the Philippines from adjacent Asian countries. English is taught in schools as one of the two official languages of the country, the other being Filipino, a standardized form of Tagalog. Due to the influx of Philippine English teachers overseas, Philippine English is also becoming the prevalent variety of English being learned in the Far East as taught by Filipino teachers in various Asian countries such as South Korea, Japan, and Thailand among others. Due to the highly multilingual and bilingual nature of the Philippines, code-switching such as Taglish and Bislish is prevalent across domains from casual settings to formal situations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chinese Filipinos</span> Ethnic group

Chinese Filipinos are Filipinos of Chinese descent with ancestry mainly from Fujian, but are typically born and raised in the Philippines. Chinese Filipinos are one of the largest overseas Chinese communities in Southeast Asia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sangley</span> Archaic terms used in the Philippines

Sangley and Mestizo de Sangley are archaic terms used in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial era to describe respectively a person of pure overseas Chinese ancestry and a person of mixed Chinese and native Filipino ancestry. The Sangley Chinese were ancestors to both modern Chinese Filipinos and modern Filipino mestizo descendants of the Mestizos de Sangley, also known as Chinese mestizos, which are mixed descendants of Sangley Chinese and native Filipinos. Chinese mestizos were mestizos in the Spanish Empire, classified together with other Filipino mestizos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philippine Hokkien</span> Dialect of Hokkien spoken in the Philippines

Philippine Hokkien is a dialect of the Hokkien language of the Southern Min branch of Min Chinese descended directly from Old Chinese of the Sinitic family, primarily spoken vernacularly by Chinese Filipinos in the Philippines, where it serves as the local Chinese lingua franca within the overseas Chinese community in the Philippines and acts as the heritage language of a majority of Chinese Filipinos. Despite currently acting mostly as an oral language, Hokkien as spoken in the Philippines did indeed historically have a written language and is actually one of the earliest sources for written Hokkien using both Chinese characters as early as around 1587 or 1593 through the Doctrina Christiana en letra y lengua china and using the Latin script as early as the 1590s in the Boxer Codex and was actually the earliest to systematically romanize the Hokkien language throughout the 1600s in the Hokkien-Spanish works of the Spanish friars especially by the Dominican Order, such as in the Dictionario Hispanico Sinicum (1626-1642) and the Arte de la Lengua Chiõ Chiu (1620) among others. The use of Hokkien in the Philippines was historically influenced by Philippine Spanish, Filipino (Tagalog) and Philippine English. As a lingua franca of the overseas Chinese community in the Philippines, the minority of Chinese Filipinos of Cantonese and Taishanese descent also uses Philippine Hokkien for business purposes due to its status as "the Chinoy business language" [sic]. It is also used as a liturgical language as one of the languages that Protestant Chinese Filipino churches typically minister in with their church service, which they sometimes also minister to students in Chinese Filipino schools that they also usually operate. It is also a liturgical language primarily used by Chinese Buddhist, Taoist, and Matsu veneration temples in the Philippines, especially in their sutra chanting services and temple sermons by monastics.

Philippine kinship uses the generational system in kinship terminology to define family. It is one of the most simple classificatory systems of kinship. One's genetic relationship or bloodline is often overridden by the desire to show proper respect that is due in the Philippine culture to age and the nature of the relationship, which are considered more important.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Names of the Philippines</span> Overview of the history and use of the various names of the Philippines

There have been several names of the Philippines in different cultures and at different times, usually in reference to specific island groups within the current archipelago. Even the name Philippines itself was originally intended to apply only to Leyte, Samar, and nearby islands. It was bestowed by the Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos or one of his captains Bernardo de la Torre in 1543 in honor of the crown prince Philip, later Philip II. Mindanao, which they reached first and assumed to be the greater land, they named after the reigning emperor Charles V, who was also Spain's king Carlos I. Over the course of Spanish colonization, the name was eventually extended to cover the entire chain. It has survived with minor changes. The Philippine Revolution called its state the Philippine Republic. The US military and civilian occupations called their territory the Philippine Islands. During the Third Philippine Republic, the state's official name was formally changed to the Philippines.

The Cojuangco clan is a prominent Filipino family descended from Co Yu Hwan, who migrated to the Philippines in 1861 from Hongjian Village, Jiaomei Township, Zhangzhou, Fujian. He was commonly called Khoân ko or Khó͘ Khoân ko / Khó͘ Hoân ko among Hokkien Chinese Filipinos, and the latter was Hispanicized as Cojuangco. He adopted the Christian name José Cojuangco in 1865 when he moved to Bulacan.

Mandarin Chinese is the primary formal Chinese language taught academically to students in Chinese Filipino private schools and additionally across other private and public schools, universities, and institutions in the Philippines, especially as the formal written Chinese language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hokaglish</span> Hokkien mixed language of the Philippines

Hokaglish, also known by locals as Sa-lam-tsam oe, is an oral contact language primarily resulting among three languages: (1) Philippine Hokkien Chinese, (2) Tagalog/Filipino and (3) Philippine English.

<i>Anito</i> Spirits and deities in indigenous Philippine folk religions

Anito, also spelled anitu, refers to ancestor spirits, nature spirits, and deities in the Indigenous Philippine folk religions from the precolonial age to the present, although the term itself may have other meanings and associations depending on the Filipino ethnic group. It can also refer to carved humanoid figures, the taotao, made of wood, stone, or ivory, that represent these spirits. Anito is also sometimes known as diwata in certain ethnic groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hoklo Americans</span> Americans of Hoklo or Hokkien birth or descent

Hokkien, Hoklo (Holo), and Minnan people are found in the United States. The Hoklo people are a Han Chinese subgroup with ancestral roots in Southern Fujian and Eastern Guangdong, particularly around the modern prefecture-level cities of Quanzhou, Zhangzhou, and Xiamen, along with the Chaoshan region. They are also known by various endonyms, or other related terms such as Hoklo people (河洛儂), Banlam (Minnan) people, Hokkien people or Teochew people (潮州人;Tiê-tsiu-lâng). These people usually also have roots in the Hokkien diaspora in Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tecson (surname)</span> Surname list

Tecson/Ticzon is a Chinese Filipino surname.

References

  1. ↑ Blair, Emma (1906). The Philippine Islands, 1493–1898 Vol. 40. Arthur H. Clark Company. pp. 57–58. Retrieved April 26, 2020.
  2. ↑ Blair, Emma (1906). The Philippine Islands, 1493–1898 Vol. 7. Arthur H. Clark Company. pp. 87–103.
  3. ↑ Morrow, Paul (March 4, 2018). "Document B" (PDF). Sari-sari Etc. Retrieved April 27, 2020.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Kate McGeown (March 27, 2011). "Playful Filipino Names Hard to Get Used To". BBC News . Retrieved January 1, 2014.
  5. ↑ Morrow, Paul. "Clavería's catalogue".
  6. ↑ "List of some surnames in the Philippines". Archived from the original on October 26, 2009.
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