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Appendix:Tagalog surnames of Spanish origin

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Main category: Tagalog surnames from Spanish

This appendix is a sub-appendix of Appendix:Tagalog surnames and lists Tagalog surnames of Spanish origin.

Spanish surnames form the majority of Filipino surnames, and may be divided into these categories:

  • Christian surnames, such as de la Cruz, Bautista, del Rosario adopted by Filipinos after being baptized into the Catholic Church during the Spanish era. Being too common, adopting those became prohibited, and many people bearing those surnames still borne those after 1849, when the Catálogo alfabético de apellidos is issued, under an exemption when the surname is used for more than four consecutive generations.
  • Spanish surnames before the issuing of the Catálogo alfabético de apellidos in 1849. Many are listed later on the allowed surnames in the catalog, and a few are prohibited for several reasons, especially surnames perceived to be very common.
  • Surnames listed in the Catálogo alfabético de apellidos, issued by Governor-General Narciso Clavería y Zaldúa in 1849. This includes most Spanish surnames, and several given names for use as surname. Surnames listed in the catalog may have been adopted before 1849, or have been used by Spanish colonial administrators, especially the Governor-General. Surnames used by Spanish noble families (where some of the Governor-Generals descended), which uses de as a nobility particle on the surname, are prohibited.

Surnames with "de", "dela"/"de la", "delas/de las", "del", "delos"/"de los" are typically on the ubiquitous religious surnames (e.g. dela Cruz, delos Santos, de Jesus), or toponymic surnames (de León, dela Peña, dela Fuente). In Spain, those surname particles are frequently associated with the nobility, whose surnames fall under the explicitly prohibited surnames, but those not always signify such (see preceding sentence for occurences outside the nobility).

Surnames from Spanish once maintained use of diacritics, such as the acute accent (Á,É,Í,Ó,Ú), trema (in Ü, after G to indicate that U is pronounced) and the tilde (in Ñ, pronounced as "ny"), but with the exception of the tilde in Ñ, other diacritics are removed from surnames, reflecting American influence. In case a surname is originally written with diacritics, the original one is written on the right (in parentheses).

Pronunciation of Spanish surnames in the Philippines are almost the same as how Hispanophones pronounce those, but most pronunciations are influenced by Latin American accents, especially Z and C (before E and I) being pronounced as /s/ because of seseo, and local phonology, that lacks several phonemes found in Spanish, resulting to substitution of sounds.

The surnames here are listed alphabetically. Subheadings by type of Spanish surname are also provided after the full list.

Full list

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A

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B

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C

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Cereneo

D

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E

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G

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M

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N

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O

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R

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T

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By type

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Christian surnames

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Most surnames from Spanish by Filipinos fall on the Christian/religious type, which has references to Christianity, especially religious symbols and saints. Surnames of this type form the majority of the most common Filipino surnames.

Its prevalence is the result of the Christianization or the early Filipinos on the early years of Spanish colonization. Filipinos took surnames related to Christianity after being baptized into the Roman Catholic Church by the colonialists, to demonstrate their faith.

But, with such surnames being too common, the Spanish colonial government have find it difficult collecting taxes and census recording, and the authorities though that many unrelated persons are related to one family because of surname. As a result, most Christian surnames became prohibited under the edict by Governor-General Narciso Clavería, who created the Catálogo alfabético de apellidos, which listed surnames permitted to be adopted. Under Clavería's edict, families bearing a prohibited surname must replace it with a new list lister at the catalog, but exemptions are placed on families that bore the surname for at least four consecutive generations. Yet, a few Christian surnames, though also too common, are left to the local governments to decide whether to permit or prohibit them

Christian surnames derive from religious symbols, saints' names, and other things related to the Catholic faith. Surnames from Christian symbols are usually references to common symbolism such as Jesus, the Holy Cross, the Rosary, the Virgin Mary, the saints, and others. Surnames from saint's names may derive from the given name, plus "San/Santo/Santa" (e.g. San Luis, San Pedro).

Place names and epithets associated with several saints, such as Tolentino and Padua (both in Italy), and Nepomuceno, are also a source of common surnames, and they remained permitted to be adapted as a new surname in the Catálogo alfabético de apellidos

Some of several Christian surnames that are common include:

Patronymic surnames

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Several surnames from Spanish are of patronymic origin, originally not inherited from the father to children, but such patronymics are soon taken as surnames. Patronymic surnames form the prodominant surnames in the Spanish-speaking world. While also found in the Philippines, many patronymic surnames are not as common as they are in the Spanish-speaking world, and surnames related to Christianity are more predominant.

Surnames ending with -ez mean a patronymic origin, but is not always the case, as in Cortez and Chavez, where -ez are alternate spellings of -es

Below is a list of Spanish surnames of patronymic origin, by prevalence in the Philippines. Original forms with accented vowels are placed in parentheses.

Counting variants and closely related surnames as the same surname, these will become:

Given names taken as patronymic surnames

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Several surnames from Spanish are derived from Spanish given names, usually male names. These directly derived from the given names without being changed to a patronymic one. Patronymic surnames derived from the given name without change are also a source of many common Filipino surnames.

Below is a list of Spanish surnames from given names as patronymics, by prevalence in the Philippines. Original forms with accented vowels are placed in parentheses:

Surnames also held by former Governor-Generals

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A few surnames held by some Governor-Generals before the implementation of the Catálogo alfabético de apellidos are also seen in use on Filipinos, and are likely listed also in the catalog.

Some surnames held by Governor-Generals before 1849 also adopted by Filipinos as their surnames include:

After the 1849 edict, several surnames adopted by Filipinos that would be seen held by following Governor-Generals includes:

Notes

  • An asterisk (*) marks a very common Spanish surname, and since they are ordinary surnames held by anyone outside the noble class, those are considered permissible. Two asterisks indicate they belong on the top 1000 most common surnames in the Philippines.
  • Surnames listed here are only those used as a paternal surname, or first surname, which equals to the surname or "last name" in the current system (the maternal or second surname in Spanish names are equal to the Filipino "middle name", a concept taken from the American naming system.)
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