There have been several names of the Philippines (, ; ) in different cultures and at different times, usually in reference to specific island groups within the current archipelago. Even the name Philippines itself was originally intended to apply only to Leyte, Samar, and nearby islands. It was bestowed by the Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos or one of his captains Bernardo de la Torre in 1543 in honor of the crown prince Philip, later PhilipII. Mindanao, which they reached first and assumed to be the greater land, they named after the reigning emperor CharlesV, who was also Spain's king CarlosI. Over the course of Spanish colonization, the name was eventually extended to cover the entire chain. It has survived with minor changes. The Philippine Revolution called its state the Philippine Republic (). The US military and civilian occupations called their territory the Philippine Islands (). During the Third Philippine Republic, the state's official name was formally changed to the Philippines.
Present name
The present name of the Philippines was bestowed by the Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos or one of his captains Bernardo de la Torre in 1543, during an expedition intended to establish greater Spanish control at the western end of the division of the world established between Spain and Portugal by the treaties of Tordesillas and Zaragoza. Having already named Mindanao for their king, the Habsburg emperor CharlesV, the Philippine Island honored his son, crown prince Philip, later PhilipII of Spain. The name and originally applied to only Leyte, Samar, and their nearby islands before shifting to and spreading to the rest. This was borrowed into English as the Philippine Islands soon after, a name which was used throughout America's military and civilian occupations of the archipelago.
Present name in other languages The 1987 Constitution provides that Filipino and English be official languages of the Philippines. It does not contain a provision specifically designating an official name for the country; however, "Republic of the Philippines" is used consistently throughout its provisions (in English). Article XIV, section 8 of the Constitution also mandates that the constitution be also promulgated in Filipino but no such official Filipino version exists. "Republika ng Pilipinas" is the de facto name of the country used in Filipino. When standing alone in English, the country's name is always preceded by the article the. However, the definite article ang does not precede the name in Filipino contexts.
The country has throughout its history been known as Filipinas. The earliest known use of Pilipinas in Tagalog was by the Katipunan in their deciphered 1892 foundational document. In the 1930s, the scholar Lope K. Santos introduced the abakada alphabet for writing Tagalog which no longer used the letter F as this sound was absent and was usually pronounced by speakers of several Philippine languages as "P". The abakada alphabet also subsequently spread to other Philippine languages (which had been using spelling systems based on the Spanish abecedario). Thus, the form Pilipinas propagated and came into general use. The Commission on the Filipino Language and National Artist, Virgilio S. Almario urged the usage of Filipinas as the country's official name to reflect its origin and history, and to be inclusive of all languages in the country of which phonologies contain , represented by the grapheme F in the present-day Philippine alphabet. This policy was later undone in 2021 by the new commissioner, Arthur Casanova, for being unconstitutional. The commission now recommends the use of Pilipinas over Filipinas when communicating in Filipino.
At international meetings, only the English name usually appears to identify the Philippines (e.g., when there are meetings in the United Nations or the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) in this setting. This is also the tradition even if the meeting is held within the Philippines. The country's name in other languages is more often than not based on either or , both ultimately rooted in the Latin .
Language Short form(Philippines) Transliteration Long form(Republic of the Philippines) Transliteration Afrikaans Filippyne Republiek van die Filippyne Albanian Filipinet Republika e Filipineve Amharic ፊሊፒንስ Filipins ፊሊፒንስ ሪፐብሊክ Filipins Ripäblik Arabic الفِلِبِّين al-Filibbīn جُمْهُورِيَّةُ الفِلِبِّين Jumhūrīyyatu al-Filibbīn Armenian Ֆիլիպիններ Filipinner Ֆիլիպիններում Հանրապետություն Filippinerum Hanrapetut'yun Azerbaijani Filippin Filippin Respublikası Basque Filipinetan Filipinetako Errepublikako Bambara Filipine jamana na Filipine jamana ka jamana Belarusian Філіпіны Filipiny Рэспубліка Філіпіны Respublika Filipiny Bengali ফিলিপাইন Filipain ফিলিপাইন প্রজাতন্ত্র Filipain Projatôntro Bulgarian Филипини Filipini Република Филипини Republika Filipini Burmese ဖိလစ်ပိုင် Philipai ဖိလစ်ပိုင်သမ္မတနိုင်ငံ Philipai Thammada Nainggan Cantonese Fēileuhtbān Fēileuhtbān Guhngwòhgwok Catalan Filipines República de les Filipines Croatian Filipini Republika Filipini Czech Filipíny Filipínská republika Danish Filippinerne Republikken Filippinerne Dutch Filipijnen Republiek der Filipijnen Esperanto Filipinoj Respubliko Filipinoj Estonian Filipiinid Filipiini Vabariik Finnish Filippiinit Filippiinien Tasavalta Fijian Filipin Matanitu Tugalala o Filipin French Philippines République des Philippines Georgian ფილიპინები P'ilipinebi ფილიპინების რესპუბლიკა P'ilipinebis respublika German Philippinen Republik der Philippinen Greek Φιλιππίνες Filippínes Δημοκρατία των Φιλιππίνων Di̱mokratía to̱n Filippíno̱n Haryanvi फ़िलिपीण Filippínn फ़िलिपीण गणराज्य Filippínn Gannrājya Hebrew Filipinim Ha'republika shel ha'Filipinim Hindi फ़िलीपीन्स Filipīns फ़िलीपींस गणराज्य Filīpīns Gaṇarājya Hokkien 菲律賓呂宋 Hui-li̍p-pinLū-sòng 菲律賓共和國 Hui-li̍p-pin kiōng-hô-kok Hungarian Fülöp-szigetek Fülöp-szigeteki Köztársaság Icelandic Filippseyjar Lýðveldið Filippseyjar Indonesian Filipina Republik Filipina Irish Na hOileáin Fhilipíneacha Poblacht na nOileán Filipíneacha Italian Filippine Repubblica delle Filippine Japanese Firipin Firipin kyōwakoku Kazakh Филиппиндер Filippinder Филиппин Республикасы Filippin Respublikasy Khmer Filippin Sathéaranakrâth Filippin Korean Pillipin Pillipin Gonghwaguk Kurdish Filîpîn Komara Filîpînan Lao Filipin Sāthālanalat Filipin Latin Philippinae Respublica Philippinarum Latvian Filipīnas Filipīnu Republika Lithuanian Filipinai Filipinų Respublika Lojban pilipinasla pilipinas. zei gubyseltru Macedonian Филипини Filipini Република Филипини Republika Filipini Malaysian Filipina Republik Filipina Maltese Filippini Repubblika tal-Filippini Mandarin Fēilǜbīn Fēilǜbīn Gònghéguó Marathi फिलिपिन्स Filipins फिलिपिन्सचे प्रजासत्ताक Filipinsce prajāsattāk Norwegian Filippinene Republikken Filippinene Persian فیلیپین Filipin جمهوری فیلیپین Jomhuri Filipin Polish Filipiny Republika Filipin Portuguese Filipinas República das Filipinas Romanian Filipine Republica Filipinelor Russian Филиппины Filipiny Республика Филиппины Respublika Filipiny Serbian Филипини Filipini Република Филипини Republika Filipini Sinhala පිලිපීනය Pilipinaya පිලිපීන ජනරජය Pilipina Janarajaya Slovak Filipíny Filipínska Republika Slovene Filipini Republika Filipini Somali Filibiin Jamhuuriyada Filibiin Spanish Filipinas República de Filipinas Swahili Ufilipino Jamhuri ya Ufilipino Swedish Filippinerna Republiken Filippinerna Tamil Pilippaiṉs Pilippaiṉs kuṭiyaracu Thai Filippin Sāthāranarat Filippin Turkish Filipinler Filipinler Cumhuriyeti Turkmen Filippinler Filippinler Respublikasy Ukrainian Філіпіни Filippiny Республіка Філіппіни Respublika Filippiny Urdu فلپائن Filipāʾin جمہوریہ فلپائن Jamhūriya Filipāʾin Uzbek Filippin Filippin Respublikasi Vietnamese Phi-líp-pin / Phi Luật Tân Cộng hoà Phi-líp-pin / Cộng hoà Phi Luật Tân Welsh Philipinau Gweriniaeth Ynysoedd y Philipinau
Historical names In addition to the Philippines, the archipelago of a country has historically had numerous other names: Panyupayana. Scholars and traders from the Indian subcontinent historically referred to the Philippines as Panyupayana, a term which emanated from the geopolitical orientation of the Indians, that started with the cosmological orientation. This is manifested by the Puranas and other Indian literature, such as Ramayana and Mahabharata,Joefe B. Santarita. “Panyupayana: The Philippines in Ancient India’s Geopolitical Orientation”. SEACOM Studies 2 (April 2015): 2 which also has versions in the Philippines such as Maharadia Lawana. Ma-i. According to the Zhao Rugua's (趙汝适) book Zhu Fan Zhi (诸蕃志/諸蕃誌) written around the 13th century during the Song dynasty, there was a group of islands found in southern South China Sea called Ma-i (麻逸, Hokkien POJ: Mâ-i̍t, Mandarin Pinyin: Máyì). The islands groups were later invaded and renamed and identified by the Spanish to be the island of Mindoro. This was further proved by Ferdinand Blumentritt in his 1882 book, Versuch einer Ethnographie der Philippinen (An Attempt to the Study of Ethnography of the Philippines) that Ma-i was the Chinese local name of present-day Mindoro., Footnote 1 On the other hand, historians claimed that Ma-i was not an island, but all the south of South Sea islands groups and Manila itself, which was known to be an overseas Chinese settlement which was in constant contact with the Chinese mainland as early as the 9th century AD. Ma-i consists of the 三洲 (Hokkien POJ: Sam-chiu, Mandarin Pinyin: Sānzhōu, lit. "Three islands") group of islands: Kia-ma-yen (卡拉棉, Hokkien POJ: Khá-la-miân, Mandarin Pinyin: Kǎlāmián, "Calamian"), 巴拉望 (Hokkien POJ: Pa-la-bāng, Mandarin Pinyin: Bālāwàng, "Palawan") and Pa-ki-nung (布桑加, Hokkien POJ: Pò͘-song-ka, Mandarin Pinyin: Bùsāngjiā, "Busuanga")., Footnote 1 Aside from 三洲, Ma-i also consists of the islands of Pai-p'u-yen (巴布延, Hokkien POJ: Pa-pò͘-iân, Mandarin Pinyin: Bābùyán, "Babuyan"), P'u-li-lu (波利略, Hokkien POJ: Po-lī-lio̍k, Mandarin Pinyin: Bōlìlüè, "Polillo"), Lim-kia-tung (林加延, Hokkien POJ: Lîm-ka-iân, Mandarin Pinyin: Línjiāyán, "Lingayen"), Liu-sung (呂宋, Hokkien POJ: Lū-sòng, Mandarin Pinyin: Lǚsòng, "Luzon") and Li-ban (盧邦, Hokkien POJ: Lô͘-pang, Mandarin Pinyin: Lúbāng, "Lubang")., Footnote 3 It was said that these islands had contacts with Chinese traders from Canton (Guangdong) as early as 982 AD. Liusung (呂宋, Hokkien POJ: Lū-sòng, Mandarin Pinyin: Lǚsòng) was the name ascribed by the Chinese to the present-day island of Luzon. It originated from the Tagalog word lusong, a wooden mortar that is used to pound rice. When the Spanish produced maps of the Philippines during the early 17th century, they called the island Luçonia which was later respelled as Luzonia, then Luzon. Las islas de San Lázaro (St. Lazarus' Islands). Named by Ferdinand Magellan in 1521 when he reached the islands of Homonhon in Samar (now Eastern Samar) on the feast day of Saint Lazarus of Bethany. Las islas de Poniente (Islands to the West). Another name from Ferdinand Magellan in 1521 when he learned that the Las islas de San Lázaro also included Cebu and Leyte islands. However, various sources claimed that Magellan was not the one who renamed the area, but his chroniclers instead. The name came from the fact that the islands were reached from Spain en route approaching the left part of the globe. Conversely, the Portuguese called the archipelago Ilhas do oriente (Islands to the East) because they approached the islands from the east of Portugal in the late 1540s. The Portuguese referred the whole island of Luzon as ilhas Luções, or Luzones Islands. Mindanao was formerly called ilhas de Liquíos Celebes because of the existence of Celebes Sea south of Mindanao. Caesarea Caroli or Karoli was the name given by Villalobos or De la Torre to the island of Mindanao when they reached the sea near it in 1543. This was named after Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire (and I of Spain).