José Rizal was born in 1861 to Francisco Rizal Mercado y Alejandro and Teodora Alonso Realonda y

Quintos in the town of Calamba in Laguna province. He had nine sisters and one brother. His parents

were leaseholders of a hacienda and an accompanying rice farm by the Dominicans. Both their families

had adopted the additional surnames of Rizal and Realonda in 1849, after Governor General Narciso

Clavería y Zaldúa decreed the adoption of Spanish surnames among the Filipinos for census purposes

(though they already had Spanish names).

Like many families in the Philippines, the Rizals were of mixed origin. José's patrilineal lineage could be

traced back to Fujian in China through his father's ancestor Lam-Co, a Chinese merchant who

immigrated to the Philippines in the late 17th century.[12][13][note 1][14] Lam-Co traveled to Manila

from Xiamen, China, possibly to avoid the famine or plague in his home district, and more probably to

escape the Manchu invasion during the Transition from Ming to Qing. He finally decided to stay in the

islands as a farmer. In 1697, to escape the bitter anti-Chinese prejudice that existed in the Philippines,

he converted to Catholicism, changed his name to Domingo Mercado and married the daughter of

Chinese friend Augustin Chin-co. On his mother's side, Rizal's ancestry included Chinese, Japanese and

Tagalog blood. His mother's lineage can be traced to the affluent Florentina family of Chinese mestizo

families originating in Baliuag, Bulacan.[15] José Rizal also had Spanish ancestry. His grandfather was a

half Spaniard engineer named Lorenzo Alberto Alonzo.[16]

From an early age, José showed a precocious intellect. He learned the alphabet from his mother at 3,

and could read and write at age 5.[13] Upon enrolling at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila, he dropped

the last three names that made up his full name, on the advice of his brother, Paciano and the Mercado

family, thus rendering his name as "José Protasio Rizal". Of this, he later wrote: "My family never paid
much attention [to our second surname Rizal], but now I had to use it, thus giving me the appearance of

an illegitimate child!"[17] This was to enable him to travel freely and disassociate him from his brother,

who had gained notoriety with his earlier links to Filipino priests Mariano Gomez, Jose Burgos and

Jacinto Zamora (popularly known as Gomburza) who had been accused and executed for treason.