Why do Phillipinos have spanish sounding names?

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Margie

Many of them are Catholic and have Spanish names because of the Spanish missionaries that settled there.

americansneedtowakeup

The Philippines used to be a Spanish colony!

â™¥â™¥The Queen Has Spokenâ™¥â™¥

Because they were colonized by Spain.

A.X. P

because the spaniards invaded the phillipines a long time ago.Ferdinand Magellan set out from Spain in 1519 on the first voyage to circumnavigate the globe with five ships and a complement of 264 crew. Three years later in 1522, only the one ship, the Victoria, returned to Spain with 18 men.

The Philippines were the death of Magellan. The expedition sighted the island of Samar on March 16, 1521. Magellan was welcomed by two Rajas, Kolambu and Siagu. He named the islands the Archipelago of San Lazaro, erected a cross and claimed the lands for Spain. The friendly Rajas took Magellan to Cebu to meet Raja Humabon. Humabon and 800 Cebuanos were baptized as Christians. Magellan agreed to help Raja Humabon put down Lapu-Lapu, a rebellious datu on the nearby island of Mactan. In a battle between Spanish soldiers and Lapu-Lapu's warriors, Magellan was killed on April 27, 1521.

Disputes over women caused relations between Raja Humabon and the remaining Spaniards to deteriorate. The Cebuanos killed 27 Spaniards in a skirmish and the Spaniards, deciding to resume their explorations, departed Cebu.

For all its losses, the voyage was a huge financial success. The Victoria's 26 ton cargo of cloves sold for 41,000 ducats. This returned the 20,000 ducats the venture had cost plus a 105 percent profit. Four more expeditions followed between 1525 and 1542. The commander of the fourth expedition, Ruy Lopez de Villalobos, named the islands after Philip, heir to the Spanish throne (r. Philip II 1556-1598).

The Philippines was not formally organized as a Spanish colony until 1565 when Philip II appointed Miguel Lopez de Legazpi the first Governor-General. Legazpi selected Manila for the capital of the colony in 1571 because of its fine natural harbour and the rich lands surrounding the city that could supply it with produce.

The Spanish did not develop the trade potential of the Philippine's agricultural or mineral resources. The colony was administered from Mexico and its commerce centered on the galleon trade between Canton and Acapulco in which Manila functioned secondarily as an entrepot. Smaller Chinese junks brought silk and porcelain from Canton to Manila where the cargoes were re-loaded on galleons bound for Acapulco and the Spanish colonies in the Americas. The Chinese goods were paid for in Mexican silver.

Spanish rule had two lasting effects on Philippine society; the near universal conversion of the population to Roman Catholicism and the creation of a landed elite. Although under the direct order of Philip II that the conversion of the Philippines to Christianity was not to be accomplished by force, the monastic orders of the Augustinians, Dominicans, Franciscans, Recollects and Jesuits set to their missionary duties with purpose. Unable to extirpate the indigenous pagan beliefs by coercion and fear, Philippine Catholicism incorporates a deep substrate of native customs and ritual.

While the missionaries spread through the colony to found their parishes and estates in the barangays, the officials of the civil administration preferred to stay in Manila and govern indirectly through the traditional barangay datu or village chief. Although the traditional kinship organization of the barangay had maintained the communal use of land, the Spanish governors brought with them their feudal notions of land tenure with "encomienderos" and subordinate vassals. The traditional village chiefs became a class of landed nobility wielding considerable local authority. The creation of a priviledged landed-holding elite on whom most of the rural population was dependent as landless tenants introduced a class division in Philippine society that has been the perennial source of social discontent and political strife ever since.

In most villages, the priest and the local "principale" or "notable" represented between them Spanish authority. The "friarocracy" of the religious orders and the oligarchy of the landholders were the twin pillars of colonial society whose main interests were in keeping their positions of authority and priviledge.

The Spanish hold on the Philippines first began to weaken in 1762 when the British briefly captured Manila during the Seven Years' War. In support of the British invasion, the long persecuted Chinese merchant community rose in revolt against the Spanish authority. The Treaty of Paris returned Manila to Spain at the end of the War but with increasing diversion of the China trade to Britain and, even more importantly, with an irretrievable loss of prestige and respect in the eyes of its Filipino subjects.

Spain had governed the colony for two hundred years in almost complete isolation from the outside world. The royal monopolies prohibited foreign ships from trading in the Philippines. After the Seven Years' War, in collusion with local merchants and officials, foreign ships and merchants could ever more easily circumvent the monopolies and enter the Philippine trade.

The colonial government had always operated at a financial loss that was sustained by subsidies from the galleon trade with Mexico. Increased competition with foreign traders finally brought the galleon trade with Acapulco to an end in 1815. After its recognition of Mexican independence in 1821, Spain was forced to govern the colony directly from Madrid and to find new sources of revenue to pay for the colonial administration.

iritadragon

A direct excerpt from Wikipedia...

Modern day Filipinos are of Austronesian descent, although there is a minority of Filipinos with Spanish, Mexican, American, Chinese, Arab, and Indian ancestry.

Through its rich history, Philippine culture has many affinities with the West specially with Spain and Latin America due to three centuries of Spanish colonial rule. Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion, and Filipino and English are the official languages

allan y

"on November 21, 1849 Governor General Narciso ClaverÃa ordered a systematic distribution of family names for the natives to use. The Catalogo Alfabetico de Apellidos was produced and approved names were assigned to families in all towns. Name distribution was so systematic that civil servants assigned family names in alphabetical order causing some small towns with only a few families to end up with all names starting with the same letter. (This interesting situation remained until fairly recent times when people became more mobile and started seeking mates from other towns.)

One result of the Hispanization of Filipino names was the change in the way traditional names (placenames, too) were pronounced. Since Hispanic names were just sounds that didn't mean much, names like "DimalantÃ¡" became "Dimalanta" (the accent shifting to the penultimate syllable) and "Julag-ay" became "JÃºlagay" (the accent shifting from the penultimate to the first and the glottal catch disappearing). This tended to hide the meanings of the names and made them more of an abstract entity just like Hispanic names. At the same time, the new pronunciation sounded more Hispanic and this step completed the transformation of some families, at least in their own minds, to an erzats class of pseudo-Spaniards."

hope this helps. have a good day.

tin2

The Philippines was under Spanish rule for well over 300 years. Clearly, the Spanish influence is reflected in our culture, our names included.

Maria

It is due to the Spanish colonization of the Philippines. This is also why most Filipinos are Catholic.

hmmmmmmmmm

yeah DUH............... didn't it appear to you that we were colonized by SPANIARDS for at least 300 years............. of course Filipinos have Spanish sounding names. read history books please.....

PS. its filipinos not Phillipinos

blue

Because the Philippines was a Spanish colony for 400 years.

CC M

Because Philippines is the only one in Asia that was colonized by Spain and it lasted for like 2 centuries. So yeah, big influence there in terms of culture, language, surnames, and religion. The other Asian countries were invaded by either French or Dutch or British. By the way, it's Filipinos- not Phillipinos. In the old days, from what I've read years ago, most Filipinos only had first names and as you know Spaniards were getting confused because so many people have the same first names so they decided to give each family a surname. A lot of surnames, like mine, were borrowed or adopted from Spaniards surname or Saints. This is especially true of those who were converted into catholicism. Claveria Edict was created as a result.

Sayaka

because spain colonized the philippines.

The CatÃ¡logo alfabÃ©tico de apellidos (English: Alphabetical Catalog of Surnames) is a book of surnames that was published in the colonial era Philippines after a decree for the systematic distribution of family names and the implementation of the Spanish naming system on the inhabitants of the Philippines.

The book was created after the Spanish Captain and Governor General Narciso ClaverÃa y ZaldÃºa issued a decree on November 21, 1849, in response to the inconsistencies in the way Filipinos arbitrarily chose surnames. Following the Christianisation of the Philippines, many Filipinos chose surnames such as de los Santos, de la Cruz, del Rosario, Bautista for their religious significance; even today these surnames are perhaps the most common. Many other Filipinos also chose surnames of well-known chieftains such as Lacandola. Furthermore, many people within the same family had different surnames. This posed a difficult problem to Spanish authorities, who found it difficult to perform a census on the archipelago's inhabitants, as well as hindering tax collecting.

Ã– I ^Ã‡arÃª Ã–

Since Filipinos were under a spanish colony way back before.

battgirl

well because, if you have been more interested to learn about Philippine history, then you would have known that the Philippines have been a colony of Spain for a looooooooong time, enough to infuse their culture with ours.

Sanmigsean

THe Philippines was a spanish colony for 350 years

Mary L

The Spanish invaded and conquered the Philippines many years ago ... check their history. Also, many Philippinos speak English, Spanish, and Tagalog.

binibining pilipina

Philippines was under Spanish colony for hundred years.

cookiegurl

probably because we were under the spanish colony for over 300 years. they have influenced us not only with the names but also w/ other some filipino practices

macki

check the Philippine history bro! HISTORY 101... the Philippines was ruled by the spaniards for more than 300 years... the rest... read your your history books!

jan-na~â™¥~ and im luvin it

influenced by the spaniards who colonized us for more than three centuries

Ma_Mikaela

there was a time in Philippine history that the Spaniards wanted to have a record of the local residents for reasons of taxing them. and in their registration, they gave most if not all Filipinos spanish names(for the Spaniard's convinience i guess.)

windblown

It was a Spanish colony for hundred of years. Thats why its not only the surnames that sounds like Spanish but some of the traits also. Even now, there is still a place that speaks spanish there. I think its Zamboanga.

-Bibee-

The Phillipines were once conquered by the spanish. Same reason Mexicans have spanish names. When Spain came over and were living there, they had children with the idigenous peoples and the names were passed on. Some even speak spanish or use slang. But that's why.

PG_13

this is because of the colonization of spaniard to the philippines.

john

Because Philippine, had been under spanish rule for many years before having our indepence.

baby gurl

MOST OF THEM DONT I KNOW CUZ I AM 1!!!!!!LIKE DYAN,RUTH,AUDREY,JOAN,RON, AND MANY MORE!!!
AND ITS NOT CUZ THT THE SPANISH RULED THER 4 A LONG TIME!!!ITS BECUZ OUR FAMILY CAME FROM ALL AROUND THE WORLD!LIKE MINE

sheet f

Well, Pinos like the way the names sound, thats why, they like to dance on the beach too and their mexican names make them look good doing that. What if Pinos had german names

warrior is a child

the spaniards have conquered the philippines for more than 300 years.

during their stay in the country, they've implemented a law that all filipinos should change their surnames including their first names to spanish sounding names.

those who didn't follow we're persecuted by the spaniards, forcing all filipinos that time to adopt a new name or alter their surnames.

the common ones were:
cruz
castro
reyes
etc.

but now,with the western influence and mixed marriages. the filipinos have various surnames that no longer sound very spanish.

kawarid4life

maby they want to be mexicans

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