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Filipinos have variousnaming 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 onemiddle andlast name are a result of the blending of American and Spanish naming customs.
Today, Filipinos usually abide by the Spanish system of using both maternal and paternal surnames. However, the Filipinos have transposed the Spanish latter (maternal) name to the American English system of using the maternal surname as a "middle name," and adopting the American English system of using the paternal surname as the formal "last name." Theparticley 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. Filipino Spanish, additionally, usually drops Spanish accents on names. American typewriters did not have an accent key, making the accent use archaic for print and documents.
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 wasbaptized intoChristianity, he would take aSpanish "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 theTondo Conspiracy (1587–88)Phelipe Amarlangagui/Amarlangagui ('Felipe, Ama ni Langawi'),Luis Amanicalao (Luis, Ama ni Calao), andOmaghicon/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,[a] a certainAmadaga was named. The contract stated that the owner of the land adjacent to the one sold in the contract wasMaria Gada who had acquired it fromAmadaga. Although no other context was given in the document, it is quite possible thatMaria Gada is the daughter of "Ama ni Gada" (misspelled) and inherited the land from him as a legacy.[3]
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.
Long given names can be shortened in various ways.Emmanuel can becomeEman,Manuel,Manolo,Manny, orManoy, andConsolación can be shortened toConnie,Cons,Sol, orChona.
Filipino women with two given names such asMaría Cristina orMaría Victoria may choose to abbreviate the very commonMaría (in honor of theVirgin Mary) asMa. (with aperiod), thus rendering these given names asMa. Cristina orMa. Victoria. Filipino males with two given names such asJosé Mariano orJosé Gerardo could follow the same practice of abbreviatingJosé asJo., though this is not as consistent. Another common practice seen in other cultures (most commonly withSpanish conventions) is toelide or combine multiple given names into one nickname. The aforementionedMaría Cristina andMaría Victoria may thus acquire the nicknamesMaricris andMarivic. Thus the Filipino namesMaricel,Maritoni,Marijo,Maritess, andMaricon come fromMaria Celia (orCeleste),María Antonieta (orAntonia),María Josefa (orJosefina),María Teresa, andMaría Concepción (or eitherConsuelo orConsolación), respectively.
A related custom is that parents combine their given names to create a name for their child. For example:
Some first names likeLodegrano orLorimer 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 orspellings that are pronounced differently.
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) andLola (grandmother) are used for senior elders;Tatay/Itay/Ama (father) orTito/Tiyo/Tsong (uncle) andNanay/Inay/Ina (mother) orTita/Tiya/Tsang (aunt) for middle-aged elders;Manong orKuya (elder brother) andManang orAte (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 ofMister,Miss,Ms., orMrs., especially when the addressee's name is not yet known by the speaker. That applies to all people who are living and working in the Philippines.Sir andMadam/Ma'am are usually not used before a nickname.
People with the same name as their father are registered asJunior (abbreviated toJr.) or numbered with Roman numerals (III, IV, V, etc.); their father addsSenior (Sr.) after his surname or suffix. Inevitably, the younger person tends to be nicknamedJunior,Jun orJunjun permanently.[citation needed] That can also be applied to numerals; i.e., the nickname can beThird orFourth. 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 isZulueta and the surname isLim). An example is former SenatorJoker 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 SenatorManny Pacquiao named his two daughtersQueen Elizabeth andPrincess.[4]
The Filipino given nameDranreb was invented by reversing the spelling of the English nameBernard, and someone calling himselfNosrac bears the legal nameCarson.Joseph Ejército Estrada, the 13thpresident of the Philippines, began as a movie actor and received his nicknameErap as an adult; it comes fromPare spelled backwards (from Spanishcompadre, which means "fellow godparent").[4]
An old custom is to replace or insert Filipino phonemes into a Spanish or English name:Edwin becomesAweng,Eduardo becomesDwarding,Roberto becomesBerting,Ponciano becomes eitherPopoy,Onse, orSyano, andRicardo becomesKarding. Sometimes there is a tendency to convert a grandiose given name into something more mundane, such as whenJohn Paul becomesJayPee,Peter John becomesPeejong,Anthony becomesTonyo andMaría Elena becomesIneng orInyang. Complementary to this is the practise of anglicizing (with the implication of "modernising") a Spanish given name. Thus,José Roberto becomesJoseph Robert (further shortened toJoebert) andEduardo becomesEdward and thenEddy orEddie Boy (sometimes further shortened toDaboy).
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 celebrityGerman Moreno, who is more known by the nicknameKuya Germs (kuya = elder brother).
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Almost all Filipinos hadSpanish or Spanish-sounding surnames imposed on them for taxation purposes, but a number of them have indigenous Filipino surnames. On November 21, 1849, Governor GeneralNarciso 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 theMaginoo or noble class.
The Spanish surname category provides themost common surnames in the Philippines.[5] 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]
Though most Filipinos adopted Spanish surnames, some adopted surnames that derive from words in indigenousPhilippine languages. Like with Spanish surnames, most of these names were introduced through theCatálogo alfabético de apellidos, since the majority of Filipino commoners only had one given name prior to Claveria's decree.
A significant number of people were exempt from the decree, since they already had preexisting surnames adopted prior to theCatálogo. Most of these preexisting indigenous surnames were originally names or titles of local native rulers (datu), nobility (maginoo), and other renowned personages. They were preserved as surnames by their descendants as the ruling classes werebaptized and transitioned into the aristocraticPrincipalia class during theSpanish colonial era. Examples of surnames from native nobility includeLacandola,Macapagal, Macabulos, andTupas, among others. Many of these surnames also incorporate the original title and names of the rulers, like Lacandola (which retainsLakan, "paramount ruler"), Dayanghirang (which retainsDayang, "noble lady"), or Gatpandan (which retainsGat, "lord"). They were allowed to keep the name to claim tax exemptions.
The majority of indigenous surnames, whether preexisting or adopted from theCatálogo, derive from words describing qualities of people (e.g. Panganiban, "strength"; Dimayuga, "defiant"; Dalisay, "pure"; Bantugan, "famed"; Manalastas, "knowledgeable"; Malicsi, "agile"), place of origin (e.g. Magbanua, "town dweller"; Bondoc, "mountain [dweller]"; Bacolod, "hill [dweller]", etc.), occupation or rank (e.g. Mandigma, "warrior"; Halili, "successor" or "heir"; Puno, "leader", etc.), objects or natural phenomena (e.g. Bituin or Bituon, "star"; Bulalayao, "rainbow"; Tanglao, "torch"; Batongbakal, "iron ore"; Banaag, "radiance of the rising sun"; Olan, "rain", etc.), or animals and plants (e.g. Kalaw, "hornbill"; Calapati, "pigeon"; Camantigue, "garden balsam"; Abucay, "Philippine cockatoo", etc.).
Most indigenous surnames are spelled closely following theSpanish-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).[6]
Unlike their lowlander counterparts,Igorots living in theCordillera Central in northernLuzon were not conquered by the Spaniards and preserved their naming customs from foreign influence. Each group had their own naming customs, but generally, likeIndonesian 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 asdanum 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 theAmerican 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.
Chinese Filipinos whose ancestors came to the Philippines from 1898 onward usually have single syllable Chinese surnames. On the other hand, most Chinese Filipinos with ancestors that 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 areTan (陳),Lim (林),Chua (蔡),Uy (黃) andOng (王). Most such surnames are spelled according to theirHokkien 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 surnameSon/Sun (孫) is listed in theClassical Chinese textHundred Family Surnames, perhaps shedding light on the Hokkien suffix-son used here as a surname alongside some sort of accompanying enumeration scheme.
Moros (Muslim Filipinos) usually bear surnames ofArabic origin, usually Muslim given names that were used aspatronymics. Other sources of Moro surnames are clan names, especially among theMaranao andMaguindanao peoples.