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ArchivesRe: Help with meanings of Filipino names
in reply to a message by Rene
Actually, it's a quite good probability, but I'm not criticizing, I'm just saying you have a lot of work ahead of you if you're going to do this seriously. If the Philippine languages are like any other you will find dozens of homophones and homographs, especially when you compare different dialects and languages, with many different meanings and origins, many of which will be equally attractive as names.
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Thank you for your help! I probably should have clarified that I was looking for either commonly used names in the Philippines or Tagalog names and I really only want to verify the names I first mentioned had the correct meanings or find someone who knew their meanings.
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Ok, I see what you mean.
Actually, my own work on the Philippine names wasn't "a lot of work", as you say would be needed, because my possibilities are so limited: I am not a professional linguist that, for example, is able to visit libraries himself and read through works of Spanish people hundreds of years old that report about the Philippines in earlier times to find hints about the meanings of names - which of course would consume endless amounts of time!
What I encountered: Either the probable meaning and/or origin of a Philippine name is rather transparent and can be found out with a few suitable Google searches, or it's already end of the line, at least for me:
Is it a common Tagalog word, with a positive meaning? Ok, probable meaning found. Is it recognizable (and known) as some kind of construct, like Jejomar from (Je)sus, (Jo)seph and (Mar)y? Ok, origin found. Is it probably a play on Spanish names, like Marites from (Mar)ia and (Tes) from Teresa? Check, probable etymology found.
Anything else? No idea :)
There are some nice- and interesting-looking lists of Philippine names on the Internet with many more names than my list. But when you check whether these names are really used in the Philippines (or were used until quite recently), you quickly find out that many are *not*.
I did this check for each name before adding it to my own list, and that did take quite some time.
Actually, my own work on the Philippine names wasn't "a lot of work", as you say would be needed, because my possibilities are so limited: I am not a professional linguist that, for example, is able to visit libraries himself and read through works of Spanish people hundreds of years old that report about the Philippines in earlier times to find hints about the meanings of names - which of course would consume endless amounts of time!
What I encountered: Either the probable meaning and/or origin of a Philippine name is rather transparent and can be found out with a few suitable Google searches, or it's already end of the line, at least for me:
Is it a common Tagalog word, with a positive meaning? Ok, probable meaning found. Is it recognizable (and known) as some kind of construct, like Jejomar from (Je)sus, (Jo)seph and (Mar)y? Ok, origin found. Is it probably a play on Spanish names, like Marites from (Mar)ia and (Tes) from Teresa? Check, probable etymology found.
Anything else? No idea :)
There are some nice- and interesting-looking lists of Philippine names on the Internet with many more names than my list. But when you check whether these names are really used in the Philippines (or were used until quite recently), you quickly find out that many are *not*.
I did this check for each name before adding it to my own list, and that did take quite some time.
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