WHAT’S IN A NAME?

In the Philippines, a Spanish surname does not necessarily mean a Hispanic lineage; though quite a few would like to think so, even bringing home their family’s “coat-of-arms” bought from a souvenir shop in Madrid as bragging rights. But unless you know for sure, whether from family records or lore, that you are descended from a Spanish immigrant—be he a soldier, a businessman, or a friar—your Spanish-sounding surname may find its ancestor only as far back as 1850, in a book called Catalogo Alfabetico de Apellidos.

The catalogue accompanied the 1849 Claveria Decree which mandated all Filipinos to adopt a family name. It presented 60,288 surnames, mostly Spanish, from which all the (natives) with a few exceptions, must choose. The decree, enacted in 1850, was the initiative of Don