As the world celebrates another Chinese Lunar New Year, as a genealogist the topic of Chinese surnames naturally occupies my mind once more. In past articles, we have explored how Chinese-Filipino, or Tsinoy, surnames developed in the Philippines.
While almost all Chinese last names from mainland China are one-syllable surnames (Tan, Lim, Li, etc.), many of the earliest Chinese last names in the country were two and more. A good source where these surnames may be found is Binondo, the historic Chinatown of the Philippines widely recognized as the oldest Chinatown in the world, established in 1594.
We all know that since Claveria’s 1849 surname decree, all Christianized Spanish subjects in the Philippines were mandated to adopt official surnames, and many Chinese mestizos created their own by combining elements of their Chinese fathers’ names. As a result, multi-syllable surnames. Most who followed this pattern combined the family name with the first name of their father, often dropping the last syllable of the first name and adding suffixes like -co or -son. Other Chinese mestizos complied with the decree by formalizing the use of their single-syllable Chinese last names such as Lim, Ang, and Tan; it must also be noted that most single-syllable Chinese surnames also emerged after Spanish rule. Some chose entirely non-Chinese surnames (Ke Yi-Nan, who was baptized Doming Lamco and Rizal’s ancestor, adopted “Mercado” to better assimilate). This practice was also prevalent among Chinese mestizos whose ancestors had already abandoned their Chinese surnames.
Looking at the last names of its residents from vecindarios or household records, towards the end of Spanish rule, one sees some interesting-sounding last names: Chinpangco, Tampangco, Tangpangco, Limjuatco, Tambunting, Tanchajuat, Chenteco, Ongjunco, Ontiansing, Dysuico, Litongjua, Siquia, Ongtiansing, Siasiongco, Yutanco, Ongpin, Lautiangco, Lauengco, and Lavengco.
As we know, Chinese-Filipinos have various roots for their current last names today. A significant number of Chinese individuals who were alive during Claveria’s naming edict ended up combining their names to make them sound less Chinese and more attuned to Spanish-style naming conventions, often incorporating a Spanish name. Others transformed their full Chinese names into family surnames for their entire clan like Jose Antonio Chuidian from Shiu Tien or Chuy Dian or Alberto Cojuangco from Khó-hoân-ko.
Even then, most of these surnames were not as numerous, considering it was just adopted mostly in the middle of the 19th century. Based on today’s more current statistics, the following multi-syllable Tsinoy last names are the top 10 most numerous. The list shows the name, its rank among all surnames in the Philippines, and its total population: Cinco (258/33,762), Suico (829/12,658), Chico (1,359/8,814), Tayco (1,503/8,130), Tiongco (1,867/7,014), Sioco (2,371/5,873), Jungco (2,516/5,619), Soco (2,552/5,573), Quiamco (2,811/5,204), and Gueco (2,986/4,984).
None of the surnames that have more than two syllables have made it to the list of numerous carriers, though if one goes even deeper into the statistics they can still be seen, albeit in even lesser quantity. For instance, Lauengco, a surname of the ancestors of the Quiogue family (of the funeral parlor fame), only has 38 people carrying it as a last name. Another example is Tambunting, famed for their chain of pawnshops, with only 157 members today; Cojuangco, with 474 members; while some last names are not as consistent in using their historical multi-syllable name like Gotianuy and Gokongwei, originally from Go and often shortened in legal documents as “Go”, thus statistically showing only six Gotianuys and five Gokongweis. Their cousin family, the Gotianuns, count only 20 carriers of the names today.
Considering how prolific the Chinese are, at least back in the mainland, it is interesting that those with multi-syllable Chinese-Filipino surnames today are not as numerous. Maybe a future researcher can conduct a study on this phenomenon. Gong Xi Fa Cai!