Why do Phillipinos have spanish sounding names?

Question

I always thought it was strange because their names sound nothing like other asian names

Answer 1

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

Answer 2

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.

Answer 3

The Catálogo alfabético 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 Clavería y Zaldúa 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.

Answer 4

"on November 21, 1849 Governor General Narciso Clavería 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 "Dimalantá" became "Dimalanta" (the accent shifting to the penultimate syllable) and "Julag-ay" became "Júlagay" (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.

Answer 5

Because the Philippines was a Spanish colony for 400 years.

Answer 6

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.

Answer 7

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.

Answer 8

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

Answer 9

THe Philippines was a spanish colony for 350 years

Answer 10

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

Answer 11

Since Filipinos were under a spanish colony way back before.