When you ask a Filipino what their name is, chances are, the name they’ll give you isn’t traditionally Filipino. They might give you a Spanish name, or a biblical name, or even an English name, despite being fully Filipino. The chances of you meeting someone named Amihan or Bayani are slim. Now, why is that?
On websites like Firstcry Parenting, you’ll find that their list of popular Filipino names consists of names that are Latin, Spanish, French, even Swedish. It’s these things that give in to the accusations that Filipinos are too reliant on American culture to have pride in their own. We hear news about countries nearly destroyed by early colonialism but they take back their cultures and we celebrate with them. But then we name our children the names of our own colonizers because that’s our norm.
You might be asking, “No one else is speaking up about this, why are you?”
In a 2019 nation-wide survey by the National Economic and Development Authority, the results revealed that Filipinos live in a relatively conformist society. We don’t change because change is not accepted. And because our culture isn’t normalized in our own country, how can we even hope for it to be accepted by others?
The best Filipinos can do in the present day is an attempt to hold on to the history that is left and try to normalize Filipino culture in the newer generations. I don’t know about you, but whenever someone with a beautiful name like “Luwalhati” rants about how they wish they were named something more westernized, I die a little bit inside.
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