The name 

Filipino, as a demonym, was derived from the term Las Islas Filipinas ("the Philippine
Islands"),[51] the name given to the archipelago in 1543 by the Spanish explorer
and Dominican priest Ruy López de Villalobos, in honor of Philip II of Spain (Spanish: Felipe II).
[52]
 During the Spanish colonial period, natives of the Philippine islands were usually known by the
generic terms indio ("Indian") or indigenta ("indigents").[53] However, during the early Spanish colonial
period the term Filipinos or Philipinos was sometimes used by Spanish writers to distinguish
the indio natives of the Philippine archipelago from the indios of the Spanish colonies in other parts
of the world.[52] The term Indio Filipino appears as a term of self-identification beginning in the 18th
century.[52]
In 1955, Agnes Newton Keith wrote that a 19th-century edict prohibited the use of the word "Filipino"
to refer to indios. This reflected popular belief, although no such edict has been found. [52] The idea
that the term Filipino was not used to refer to indios until the 19th century has also been mentioned
by historians such as Salah Jubair [54] and Renato Constantino.[55] However, in a 1994 publication the
historian William Henry Scott identified instances in Spanish writing where "Filipino" did refer to
"indio" natives.[56] Instances of such usage include the Relación de las Islas Filipinas (1604) of Pedro
Chirino, in which he wrote chapters entitled "Of the civilities, terms of courtesy, and good breeding
among the Filipinos" (Chapter XVI), "Of the Letters of the Filipinos" (Chapter XVII), "Concerning the
false heathen religion, idolatries, and superstitions of the Filipinos" (Chapter XXI), "Of marriages,
dowries, and divorces among the Filipinos" (Chapter XXX), [57] while also using the term "Filipino" to
refer unequivocally to the non-Spaniard natives of the archipelago like in the following sentence:
The first and last concern of the Filipinos in cases of sickness was, as we have stated, to offer some
sacrifice to their anitos or diwatas, which were their gods.[58]

— Pedro Chirino, Relación de las Islas Filipinas

In the Crónicas (1738) of Juan Francisco de San Antonio, the author devoted a chapter to "The
Letters, languages and politeness of the Philippinos", while Francisco Antolín argued in 1789 that
"the ancient wealth of the Philippinos is much like that which the Igorots have at present". [52] These
examples prompted the historian William Henry Scott to conclude that during the Spanish colonial
period:
[...]the people of the Philippines were called Filipinos when they were practicing their own culture—
or, to put it another way, before they became indios.[52]

— William Henry Scott, Barangay- Sixteenth Century Philippine Culture and Society