NAMES IN COMMON

Philippines is a country within Southeast Asia that is known to have a

combination of cultures from countries and colonizers that tried to take over its
rich resources. As many traditions and practices from both the east and the west
were introduced to the country, it gradually merged thus developing various
cultures and customs of the Philippines. One of the things that were inherited by
the Philippines from its colonizers was the name of its people. Americans and
Spanish have influenced the country to an extent that even the names of its
people were derived from the language of the said countries. Moreover, the
names of the citizens were not only the attribute we acceded from them but as
well as some words in our language. Given these facts, how did this happen?

Filipino names have a mix of American and Spanish names as we can

observe. No person in the Philippines does not know anyone with this type of
naming custom. Check yourself, you could also have a mixed name. If you have
an American first name and Spanish surname, you are a Filipino without a doubt.
Also, the language we are speaking as of today was developed and formed from
the remnants of colonization that occurred in the past. Philippines was under
Spanish rule for 333 years before Americans took control for at least 48 years
which is why I am not surprised at some words we use until today. Spanish and
Americans are partly responsible for what is speaking right now. For instance,
counting words such as “uno”, “dos”, “tres” and so on were originally from the
language of Spanish people. In addition, surnames such as “Bautista” and “De la
Cruz” were also French. Furthermore, Filipinos prefer to name their children with
American names such as “Joshua” and “Justine” and combined along with the
French surname producing a colonized Filipino name. Personally, this naming
custom is unique if comprised together in a manner that if someone has this
name, you will automatically know if he/she is a Filipino. Aside from this, on
account of the colonization of American and Spanish in the past, Filipinos are
usually multilingual or bilingual which makes them fluent in English and easier to
communicate with other people around the globe.

However, this may be interesting in my opinion, we still cannot deny the fact
that this practice of us is a reminder of the cruel things that happened to us.
Some even say that Filipinos do not have an identity of their own since it was
dependent and based upon what the colonizers have influenced.

In the final analysis, this reminds us that nations may have seized our land
yet, we persevered, uniquely recovered, and remained strong.