Spanish place names are common in the Philippines due to historical reasons. Here I offer an comprehensive list of stable major place names of Spain in the National Capital Region of the Philippines (Metro Manila) and I analyze the results according to social, geographical, historical and linguistic views. I finally defend that place names are coined and evolve according to historical, social, political and economic reasons. Colonial past, population growth and globalization are the main causes for place names in Metro Manila.
The National Capital Region of the Philippines, commonly named Metropolitan Manila or Metro Manila, is constituted by 16 cities and one municipality: the city of Manila, Quezon City, Caloocan, Las Piñas, Makati, Malabon, Mandaluyong, Marikina, Muntinlupa, Navotas, Parañaque, Pasay, Pasig, Pateros (municipality), San Juan, Taguig and Valenzuela. In 2015 it had a population of more than 12,8 million people () and it comprises more than 20.000 streets ().
The Philippines was under Spanish colonial rule between 1565 and 1898. Manila was founded by Miguel López de Legazpi in 1571 over a previous settlement influenced by local peoples, Chinese traders and the Sultanate of Brunei. The Spanish linguistic influence in Manila began in the second half of the 16th century and extended until the Second World War, some decades after the American rule of the country started in 1898. The occupation of the previous settlement and the city growth introduced a vast number of Spanish place names that coexisted with previous local names (). After the Spanish control of Manila, some of these names changed in favor of Tagalog or English names, while others remain (; ). During the 20th and the 21th centuries, Manila's transformation into a megalopolis also introduced some new Spanish place names, sometimes due to the direct influence of Spanish culture and language, and sometimes due to Spanish loans in Tagalog language.
In general, place names obey to social or geographical reasons. The latter usually describes the territory physical characteristics —e. g. La Loma (The Hill), Estero (Channel). Social reasons are bast and their classification is more complex. Sometimes they may refer to working activities and guilds —e. g. arroceros (rice dealers), tinajeros (pot makers)—, to influential people, religious entities, military structures, etc. For Spanish place names in urban areas of the Philippines, offer the following taxonomy: names of saints, names of Spanish countries and cities, names of historical figures, historic dates, names of people related to Arts of Sciences, relevant people in the Philippine society including their given names and surnames, only given names or only surnames, names of flowers and plants, names of animals, abstract names, names of guilds and working activities, names derived from common names or adjectives, geographical names, poetic names and commercial names (544-550).
Here I offer an exhaustive list of major place names of Spain in Metro Manila and I analyze their current presence attending to social, geographical, historical, and linguistic reasons. For that, I use the information on Spanish place names in Metro Manila obtained from more than 800 informers all over the megalopolis, from my personal fieldwork and from contemporary sources, mainly maps (; ). Data were obtained between 2016 and 2020.
After this introduction, in section 2 I explain the criteria for the list and I offer the list of current major place names of Spain in Metro Manila. In section 3 I offer a social, geographical, historical and linguistic analysis of the list. In section 4 I remark some conclusions.
The following list shows a comprehensive account of the major place names of Spain in Metro Manila by 2020. I consider major toponyms of Spain the names of Spanish provinces, autonomous communities, main islands, all their capitals and the whole country —i. e. España. It must be noted that by the end of the Spanish rule in the Philippines, the metropolis administrative division was slightly different, and that is reflected in these place names as I will explain in the conclusions. Many times place names do not directly correspond to a place in Spain but to family names (). In order to offer complete information, I also consider and list them, indicating they are eponyms at the end of the item line.
On the other hand, I include names having a print in Manila's territory and society and I ignore names that are not stable. I consider steady names those that have been established before the battle of Manila in 1945 or those occupying at least one block or a considerable building size. Under these criteria, I ignore recent private small entities like non-historical minor stores. I list unclear cases for the sake of the research ().
Each item is followed by its kind of place names —e. g. street, building, etc.—, then by its geographical coordinates and finally by its translation into English when applicable. At the beginning of the item line I add the original graphic solution but first I write the Spanish normative one between square brackets when they do not coincide, which usually happens with diacritical marks, ñ, writing of the letters c and z as s, and confusion between b and v (). It also occurs for noun phrases using a place name in Spain, in which I remark such place name —e. g. [Andalucía] Caras de Andalucia— and for place names in Spain written in Catalan or English —e. g. [Sevilla] Seville. At the end of the item line I sometimes add some clarifications or extra information between square brackets, like the district or area where it is found in the case such area comprises a set of place names of Spain.
Some autonomous communities, provinces, islands and capitals of Spain do not appear in the list: Álava, Albacete, Almería, Baleares, Cantabria, Ceuta, Ciudad Real, Coruña, Fuerteventura, Gomera, Guipúzcoa, Huesca, Jaén, Hierro, Lanzarote, León, Logroño, Melilla, Oviedo, País Vasco, Palencia, Palma, Palmas, San Sebastián, Tenerife, Valladolid, Vitoria, Menorca.
It must be noted that the administrative division of Spain by the time of the end of the Spanish rule in the Philippines was slightly different. That can explain the absence of some of the previous names, like Cantabria, País Vasco or its basque name, Euskadi. For the latter, we do not find its common name at that time, Vascongadas. The different Spanish administrative division also explains the place names Dos Castillas and Castilla instead of Castilla-La Mancha and Castilla y León, although we do find La Mancha owing to Don Quixote of La Mancha.
On the other hand, most of the previous ignored names can be found in private small recent entities —e. g. stores— of Metro Manila, mainly associated to family names, as well as in other cities, towns and streets of the rest of the Philippines. Sometimes they are found in the bordering provinces of Bulacan, Rizal, Cavite and Laguna, which constitute the National Capital Region urban extension.
There are many place names called Hierro, León, Palma and Palmas. However, they do not refer to the Spanish place names but to the common nouns Iron, Lion, Palm Tree(s), or to family names with no link with the previous Spanish cities, provinces and islands. San Sebastián is found five times in Metro Manila but referring to the saint and not to the city. There are also six Granada referring to Pomegranate and not to the Spanish city and many Canary pointing to the bird and not to the islands. In the case of Palmas, there is a Paseo de las Palmas in Tunasan Muntinlupa (14.3768, 121.0376), an area of major place names of Spain, but it connects with Paseo de las Acacias (Promenade of the Acacias). It is not clear if Palmas refer to the Spanish insular city or to the palm tree. I requested such information to the local authorities but they did not have it.
Some of the names do not directly point to the major toponyms of Spain but to saints related to those places —e.g. [Ávila] Santa Teresa de Ávila— or to other places in the Philippines or in the world that took their names from Spanish places: Cadiz [Cádiz], Cuenca and Toledo in the Philippines; Guadalajara in México. We also find Spanish major toponyms of other countries —e. g. Buenos Aires— and other Spanished toponyms —e. g. Tetuán.
Finally, eponyms are isolated while place names directly referring to major toponyms in Spain are usually bound together. Among the eponyms, historical figures like Padre Zamora and Padre Burgos are preeminent.
Manila's place names directly pointing to major toponyms in Spain are usually grouped in specific districts and neighborhoods: Bagong Silangan Quezon City, Caloocan, Circulo Verde —[Círculo Verde] a recent condominium or set of buildings—, Cupang Muntinlupa, Nangka Marikina, Tunasan Muntinlupa, Sampaloc, San Antonio Parañaque, Talon Dos Las Piñas —two different areas—, Valencia.
Most of these areas have been recently built and none of them is historical. For those cases, major place names in Spain are the fashion to coin these new place names, as well as there are some French names —e.g. Almanza Dos Las Piñas (14.3984, 121)— or Italian names —e.g. Pulang Lupa Dos Las Piñas (14.4577, 120.99)— for other recently built areas. Spanish new place names are more numerous than other international languages place names, although most of the areas established in the last decades in Metro Manila have Tagalog or English names.
Some areas have adopted place names of international popular cities, regions and countries with no classification in terms of nationality. I call them International Areas. The most popular toponyms of Spain in these zones are Madrid and Barcelona, but we can also find Aragon, Canary, Cordova, Guadalajara (Mexican city), La Mancha, Malaga, Seville and Toledo.
Isolated major toponyms of Spain in Metro Manila usually refer to eponyms, although there are some exceptions, like Caceres [Cáceres] and Badajoz [Badajos] in Poblacion Makati.
Some of the names are already listed in Manila's map of 1898 (). Barcelona, Madrid and Sevilla are still found in the district of San Nicolás, while Bilbao is still found in Tondo. Barcelona, Madrid and Sevilla are also found in Tondo as natural extensions of the former streets in San Nicolás. They do not appear in 1898's map as that area was still covered by Manila Bay's waters, but when Tondo gained ground and extended into the sea, the new streets inherited San Nicolas street names as extensions. There is also Calle Tetuan [Tetuán] in Santa Cruz next to Binondo, which is still in use. For all these cases, the defining word Calle has changed into Street.
It must be noted that some new major toponyms of Spain in Metro Manila not listed in 1898's map appear in Manila's map of 1920 (), in the area of Sampaloc. Most of these names are preserved although Andalucia [Andalucía] and Cataluña have changed in the last years. The former street is now officially called Alfonso Mendoza while the latter is called Tolentino. Both Andalucia [Andalucía] and Cataluña place names are still recognized in some public facilities —[Andalucía] Andalucia Court—, buildings —[Cataluña] Lotus de Cataluna—, stores and even in road signals, but they are in disuse. In any case, substitution of major toponyms of Spain in Metro Manila is not as common as substitution of place names referring to historical and political personalities.
Most of the place names referring to major Spanish place names in Metro Manila are written in Spanish language. There are also Catalan names for Girona, Lleida and Majorca — both Lleida and Majorca correspond to new buildings inside Circulo Verde [Círculo Verde] condominium. English names pointing to place names in Spain can be found in Canary and Seville. Most of the Canary place names refer to the bird and not to the islands, although the case listed here refers to the latter and it is found in an international area (14.4031, 121.0371). The English word Seville is found in recently built residential areas and in one international area.
Diacritical marks are eluded and most of the times ñ is too —e. g. Lotus de Cataluna. This is common for all Spanish place names in the Philippines, where accents are not written and there is a vacillation between ñ and n —e. g. niño/nino, doña/dona. In the case of España it preserves ñ except for Villa Espana Subdivision. Sometimes letters c and z are written as s — Badajos; Zaragosa and Barselona in some private recent entities or public transportation signals. In general, major toponyms of Spain in Metro Manila tend to better preserve original Spanish graphic solutions than other place names.
Finally, the listed items use English descriptives, mainly Street. That is the common solution in Manila's place names, although sometimes we can find Tagalized Spanish formula like Kalye or even the original Spanish words. In this sense, the second area in Talon Dos Las Piñas comprises Calle Segovia, Calle Valencia and Calle Zaragoza.
Places are named according to geographical and social reasons. All over the world, many place names have been preserved for centuries and even millennia, printing the linguistic and social history of the territory.
Since the end of the Spanish rule in the Philippines in 1898, the country and its capital Manila have been in continuous social and urban change. The city's population has rapidly grown and nowadays Manila is one of the largest urban agglomerations in the world. Some of the former Spanish place names are preserved while others are not. Many new districts have appeared, coined with Tagalog and English names, and to a lesser extent with other international names with a preponderance of Spanish language.
The evolution of Manila's place names reflects its historical and political development and its identity and social tensions in a past marked by colonial rulers and military powers, and a present marked by globalization and economic powers. The presence and evolution of major place names of Spain in Manila sheds some light on the matter and shows some patters: the presence of Spanish language in historical places, the preponderance of Tagalog and English solutions —sometimes Tagalized Spanish words— for new geographical entities and the introduction of names coming from other languages due to globalization and fashions, in which the Spanish language is preeminent.
1
Bach, John (1920): City of Manila, Philippine Islands. Manila: Bureau of Commerce and Industry. Available at https://www.loc.gov/resource/g8064m.ct003077/.
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Gamoneda, Francisco de (1898): Plano de Manila y sus arrabales. Imprenta de Ramón Montes. Available at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Manila_and_suburbs_1898.jpg.
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Google (n.d). Metro Manila. Available at http://tiny.cc/MetroManila2020 [accessed 30 January 2020].
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Stolz, Thomas & Ingo Warnke (2016). “When places change their names and when they do not. Selected aspects of colonial and postcolonial toponymy in former French and Spanish colonies in West Africa —the cases of Saint Louis (Senegal) and the Western Sahara”. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 239, 29-56.
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Marco Antonio Joven Romero
Pre-doctoral FPI Researcher (Gobierno de Aragón)
I am working on the debate generated by Williams' popular statement 'Belief aims at truth'. I analyze both concepts of belief and truth, propositional attitudes, and I explore how practical and pragmatical ideas may contribute to this topic.
Research interests
Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Language, Normativity, Inferentialism, Pragmatism, Linguistics.
