Why do fillipinos have spanish last names?

Question

so they lost all culture of their own during the spanish occupation? and never got it back?

Answer 1

The Filipinos couldn't fight back then so they had to give in to the Spanish. Or because Spanish names sound better than Filipino names. Like for example there is a guy that has a Filipino name DingDong?? LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Are you serious! LOL!!!!!!!

Answer 2

The Philippines were a Spanish possession for a couple of hundred years, until the Spanish American War in about 1898 or so.

Answer 3

Read my 12th commandment

Answer 4

cuz spanish last names are in fashion lol jk idk

Answer 5

In those early times, Filipinos didn't have   last  names.  During the Spanish occupation,  (if you have read  world history, you would know that Spain colonized the Philippines for more than 300 years.) the  Spanish officials issued a law/degree that  every  Filipinos should  have family names for  identification purposes.  . According to stories I've heard from my grandmother, their ancestors  were asked to choose Spanish names  out from Spain's  telephone directory (white pages). Many Filipinos chose the Spanish names but some opted to use their father's name as surname.

As you can see, not all Filipinos have Spanish last names. My family name is original  Filipino.

Answer 6

300 years of Spanich occupation, what would you expect?

Answer 7

Most of us grew up idolizing the White Caucasian, their lords and ladies.

But don't worry.  It's a trend slowly fading.

We go now for the next in-fashion.   Names that no one can guess how to spell.

Answer 8

333 years under the Spaniards...thats a big factor.

But Filipinos have spanish last names because Spaniards then changed it so they can pronounce and understand Filipino last names whenever they solicit and for vital records purposes.

Hope this helps.  

Answer 9

Not all Filipinos have Spanish last names, only lowlanders do. Cordillerans (Baguio, Benguet, Ifugao, Kalinga, Mt. Prov. etc.) have their native last names. Their culture is not at all influenced by the Spaniards as they were never conquered.  

Answer 10

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.

Answer 11

many people think spanish names sound better than native ones. but if you get down to it, families with native names were originally the influential (& prob wealthy) local leaders, and spanish authorities cannot force them to change their names.

so when you meet someone with a "funny-sounding" local family name, remember that here is someone whose ancestor was not afraid to stand up to the colonizers

Answer 12

The Spanish controlled the islands for a while. Go learn history.

Answer 13

it's because the Philippines was a Spanish colony for more than 300 years. =]

Answer 14

You just answered your own question, but i'll help you out from what i know...When the Spaniards took the Philippines they changed everything that's Filipino, so it goes that most Flip's have Spanish last names coz of the Spaniards influence

Answer 15

'cos the Phillapines were a spanish colony.