In the Philippine languages, a system of titles and honorifics was used extensively throughout its history. In the pre-colonial era, It was mostly used by the Tagalogs and Visayans. These were borrowed from the Malay system of honorifics obtained from the Moro peoples of Mindanao, which in turn was based on the Indianized Sanskrit honorifics system and the Chinese's used in areas like Ma-i (Mindoro) and Pangasinan. The titles of historical figures such as Rajah Sulayman, Lakandula and Dayang Kalangitan evidence Indian influence. Malay titles are still used by the royal houses of Sulu, Maguindanao, Maranao and Iranun on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao. In the Spanish colonial era, Philip II of Spain decreed that the nobility in the Philippine islands should retain their pre-hispanic honours and privileges. In the modern times, these are retained on a traditional basis as the 1987 Constitution explicitly reaffirms the abolition of royal and noble titles in the republic.

Pre-colonial era

Indian influence

Historically Southeast Asia was under the influence of Ancient India, where numerous Indianized principalities and empires flourished for several centuries in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Cambodia and Vietnam. The influence of Indian culture into these areas was given the term indianization. French archaeologist, George Coedes, defined it as the expansion of an organized culture that was framed upon Indian originations of royalty, Hinduism and Buddhism and the Sanskrit dialect. This can be seen in the Indianization of Southeast Asia, spread of Hinduism and Buddhism. Indian diaspora, both ancient (PIO) and current (NRI), played an ongoing key role as professionals, traders, priests and warriors. Indian honorifics also influenced the Malay, Thai, Filipino and Indonesian honorifics.Krishna Chandra Sagar, 2002, An Era of Peace, Page 52.

The pre-colonial native Filipino script called baybayin was derived from the Brahmic scripts of India and first recorded in the 16th century.. According to Jocano, 336 loanwords in Filipino were identified by Professor Juan R. Francisco to be Sanskrit in origin, "with 150 of them identified as the origin of some major Philippine terms."Examples of Datus who took the title Rajah were Rajah Soliman, Rajah Matanda, and Rajah Humabon. Cf. Landa Jocano, Filipino Prehistory, Manila: 2001 Many of these loanwords concerned governance and mythology, which were the particular concern of the Maginoo class, indicating a desire for members of that class to validate their status as rulers by associating themselves with foreign powers. The Laguna Copperplate Inscription, a legal document inscribed on a copper plate in 900 AD, is the earliest known written document found in the Philippines that is written in Indian Sanskrit and the Brahmi script-based Indonesian Kawi script.

Royal and noble titles

Sri or Seri (Baybayin: ) is a polite form of address equivalent to the English Mr. or Ms. in Indianized polities and communities The title is derived from Sanskrit श्रीमान् (śrīmān). Its use may stem from the Puranic conception of prosperity, and examples of nobility who have use the title are Sri Lumay, founder of Cebu; his grandson Sri Hamabar; Sripada of the Lupah Sug; and possibly the datu of Mactan, Si Lapu-lapu.

Datu (Baybayin: ) is the title for chiefs, sovereign princes, and monarchsFor more information about the social system of the Indigenous Philippine society before the Spanish colonization see Barangay in Enciclopedia Universal Ilustrada Europea-Americana, Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1991, Vol. VII, p.624: "Los nobles de un barangay eran los más ricos ó los más fuertes, formándose por este sistema los dattos ó maguinoos, principes á quienes heredaban los hijos mayores, las hijas á falta de éstos, ó los parientes más próximos si no tenían descendencia directa; pero siempre teniendo en cuenta las condiciones de fuerza ó de dinero." in the Visayas“También fundó convento el Padre Fray Martin de Rada en Araut- que ahora se llama el convento de Dumangas- con la advocación de nuestro Padre San Agustín...Está fundado este pueblo casi a los fines del río de Halaur, que naciendo en unos altos montes en el centro de esta isla (Panay)...Es el pueblo muy hermoso, ameno y muy lleno de palmares de cocos. Antiguamente era el emporio y corte de la más lucida nobleza de toda aquella isla...Hay en dicho pueblo algunos buenos cristianos...Las visitas que tiene son ocho: tres en el monte, dos en el río y tres en el mar...Las que están al mar son: Santa Ana de Anilao, San Juan Evangelista de Bobog, y otra visita más en el monte, entitulada Santa Rosa de Hapitan.” Gaspar de San Agustin, O.S.A., Conquistas de las Islas Filipinas (1565–1615), Manuel Merino, O.S.A., ed., Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas: Madrid 1975, pp. 374–375. and MindanaoIn Mindanao, there have been several sultanates. The Sultanate of Maguindanao, Sultanate of Sulu, and Sultanate of Lanao are among those more known in history. Cf. regions of the Philippines. Together with lakan (Luzon), apo (central and northern Luzon),The Olongapo Story, July 28, 1953 – Bamboo Breeze – Vol.6, No.3 sultan, and rajah, they are titles used for native royalty, and are still used frequently in Mindanao, Sulu and Palawan.Por otra parte, mientras en las Indias la cultura precolombiana había alcanzado un alto nivel, en Filipinas la civilización isleña continuaba manifestándose en sus estados más primitivos. Sin embargo, esas sociedades primitivas, independientes totalmente las unas de las otras, estaban en cierta manera estructuradas y se apreciaba en ellas una organización jerárquica embrionaria y local, pero era digna de ser atendida. Precisamente en esa organización local es, como siempre, de donde nace la nobleza. El indio aborigen, jefe de tribu, es reconocido como noble y las pruebas irrefutables de su nobleza se encuentran principalmente en las Hojas de Servicios de los militares de origen filipino que abrazaron la carrera de las Armas, cuando para hacerlo necesariamente era preciso demostrar el origen nobiliario del individuo. de Caidenas y Vicent, Vicente, Las Pruebas de Nobleza y Genealogia en Filipinas y Los Archivios en Donde se Pueden Encontrar Antecedentes de Ellas in Heraldica, Genealogia y Nobleza en los Editoriales de Hidalguia, (1953–1993: 40 años de un pensamiento). Madrid: 1993, HIDALGUIA, p. 232.The title is also being used in ethnic Minangkabau Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. Cf. Dato and Datuk. Depending upon the prestige of the sovereign royal family, the title of datu could be equated to royal princes, European dukes, marquesses and counts."There were no kings or lords throughout these islands who ruled over them as in the manner of our kingdoms and provinces; but in every island, and in each province of it, many chiefs were recognized by the natives themselves. Some were more powerful than others, and each one had his followers and subjects, by districts and families; and these obeyed and respected the chief. Some chiefs had friendship and communication with others, and at times wars and quarrels. These principalities and lordships were inherited in the male line and by succession of father and son and their descendants. If these were lacking, then their brothers and collateral relatives succeeded... When any of these chiefs was more courageous than others in war and upon other occasions, such a one enjoyed more followers and men; and the others were under his leadership, even if they were chiefs. These latter retained to themselves the lordship and particular government of their own following, which is called barangay among them. They had datos and other special leaders [mandadores] who attended to the interests of the barangay." Antonio de Morga, The Project Gutenberg EBook of History of the Philippine Islands, Vols. 1 and 2, Chapter VIII. In large precolonial barangays, which had contacts with other Southeast Asian cultures through trade, some datus took the title of rajah or sultan.Examples of Datus who took the title Rajah were Rajah Soliman, Rajah Matanda, and Rajah Humabon. Cf. Landa Jocano, Filipino Prehistory, Manila: 2001, p.160.

The oldest historical records mentioning about the title datu is the seventh century Srivijayan inscriptions, such as the Telaga Batu, to describe lesser kings or vassalized kings. It was called dātu in Old Malay language to describe regional leader or elder,Casparis, J.G., (1956), Prasasti Indonesia II: Selected Inscriptions from the 7th to the 9th Century A.D., Dinas Purbakala Republik Indonesia, Bandung: Masa Baru. a kind of chieftain that rules of a collection of kampungs (villages). The Srivijaya empire was described as a network of mandala that consists of settlements, villages, and ports each ruled by a datu that vowed their loyalty (persumpahan) to the central administration of Srivijayan Maharaja. Unlike the indianized title of raja and maharaja, the term datuk was also found in the Philippines as datu, which suggests its common native Austronesian origin. The term kadatwan or kedaton refer to the residence of datuk, equivalent with keraton and istana. In later Mataram Javanese culture, the term kedaton shifted to refer the inner private compound of the keraton, the residential complex of king and royal family.

Lakan (Baybayin: ) originally referred to a rank in the precolonial Filipino nobility in the island of Luzon, which means "paramount ruler." It has been suggested that this rank is equivalent to that of Rajah, and that different ethnic groups either used one term or the other, or used the two words interchangeably.Scott, William Henry, Barangay: Sixteenth-Century Philippine Culture and Society, Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1994. Today, the term is still occasionally used to mean nobleman, but has mostly been adapted to other uses. In Filipino martial arts, it is equivalent to the black belt rank. Beauty contests in the Philippines have taken to referring to the winner as lakambini, the female equivalent of lakan. In such cases, the contestant's assigned escort can be referred to as a lakan. More often, a male pageant winner is named a Lakan.

The title can be spelled separately from a person's name (e.g. "Lakan Dula"), or can be incorporated into one word (e.g. "Lakandula").

16th and 17th-century Spanish colonial accounts of lakan being used in Philippine history include: Lakandula, later baptized as Don Carlos Lacandola, the ruler of Tondo at the advent of Spanish conquest Lakantagkan, the first recorded ruler of Namayan.

Spanish era

In Spanish Colonial Philippines, the honorific title was reserved to the local nobilityFor more information about the social system of the Indigenous Philippine society before the Spanish colonization confer Barangay in Enciclopedia Universal Ilustrada Europea-Americana, Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, S. A., 1991, Vol. VII, p.624. known as the Principalía, whose right to rule was recognised by Philip II on June 11, 1594.