First Filipinos

[MikerG]

First "Filipinos"

The term Filipino originally referred exclusively to Spaniards
and Spanish mestizos born in the Philippines.

Espanoles-Filipinos -- children of Espana and Filipinas -- was
how they specifically called themselves. Later the native
upper class of indios ("uncivilized heathens") and Chinese
mestizos, believing that education and wealth gave them
the cloak of Spanish culture, also began calling themselves Filipinos.

here's another one....

Juan de la Cruz

Contrary to popular notion, the symbolic name "Juan de la Cruz"
is not a Filipino invention. R. McCulloch-Dick, a Scottish born
journalist, coined the generic tag while working for the Manila
Times in the early 1900's after discovering it was the most
common name in police blotters and court dockets in and
around Manila.

[Limahong]

How did the Filipinos get their Spanish names?

[swakzee!]

classmate, nakalimutan mo na ba?
Ikaw pa nga nag report sa history class natin nito eh...

buti na lang di ko pa nabura notes ko
sa papel de hapon na kwaderno.

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For the first several hundred years of Spanish rule,
most Filipino surnames were either indigenous
(e.g., Macapagal) or the names of Saints or other
Catholic symbols (San Jose, de la Cruz, de los Reyes, etc.).
Frequently, members of the same family did not have
the same "surname" which drove Spanish officials crazy
since they were trying to keep the tax rolls straight.

So in 1849, under Governor General Narciso Claveria,
they issued a huge "Alphabetical Catalogue of
Surnames" (Catalogo Alfabetico de Apellidos -- republished
by the National Archives in 1973), which is just page
after page of names, some Spanish, some Filipino,
compiled by friars and bureaucrats from various
sources. In theory, every Filipino was supposed to
pick a name from this approved list, and all members
of the same family were supposed to have the same
surname and stick to it.

In practice, implementation was very uneven.
In some provinces, e.g. Albay, the governor apparently
tore out pages from the Catalogue and sent them to
individual towns. Hence, almost everyone in the town
had names beginning with the same letter
("B" in Tiwi, "R" in Oas, etc.) In other provinces, it was
much more random. A lot of people kept old surnames
(including "de los Santos" and the like) even though
the decree supposedly forbade this. However, most
Filipinos have family names which date back only
to 1849 and to the "Catalogue" issued by Claveria.

Most of the Filipino-Chinese surnames date from the
19th century and later when most Chinese immigrants
came to the Philippines. Names ending with "-go"
or "-co" or "-son" often reflect contractions of generic
terms or honorifics.

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kung ano man ibig sabihin nyan, di ko alam.
English eh..