Notes on Family Names: If Muhammad Ali was Filipino, would his name be Celso Arcilla? (First of Two Parts)

And when in a queue, say in a government office, one hears, apart from adjectives pertaining to physical attributes, an indeterminate number of Spanish adjectives pointing to a mental or emotional trait:  Sabio ("wise"), Calma ("calm"), Lagrimoso ("tearful"), Recto ("upright"), Buena/Bueno ("good", "kind"), Amador ("loving"), Clemente ("merciful"), Caro ("expensive", "beloved"), Lozano ("vigorous").

While Santos, de los Santos, Martirez, de los Martires, Angeles, de los Angeles and Protomartir invoke piety; and Infante ("prince"), Patrimonio ("heritage", "inheritance"), Rey ("king"), de los Reyes ("of the kings"), Palacio and Imperial are quaintly aristocratic; some surnames seem to lack grace and favor, pointing to an ordinariness that may have been the actual life circumstance of the bearer in the colonial era.

While Flores ("flowers"), de la Rosa ("of the rose"), Primavera ("primrose", "springtime"), and Maravilla ("marigold"), de la Paz ("of the peace", "of the peacefulness"), Florida ("flowery"), Verano ("summer"), Alba ("dawn"), and Luna ("moon") seem decorous and even romantic; other Filipino family names are Spanish common nouns, names of everyday things:  Balde ("pail", "bucket"), Postigo ("small back door"), Baldosa ("floor tile"), Espejo ("mirror"), Mesa ("table"), Atadero ("rope"), Azada ("hoe"), Madera ("wood"), Correa ("strap", "thong"), Calzado ("footwear"). Losa, a common Filipino last name, is also the Bikol term for plates, bowls and saucers, and clearly the indigenized form of the Spanish loza which means crockery (particularly the earthenware kind), not easily reconcilable with the morbid losa which means tombstone in Spanish.

Days after a Paquiao victory, while looking for a place to eat in a mall, a friend blurted out, "If Muhammad Ali was Filipino, his name would be Celso Arcilla." "Say what?" another friend asked, bewildered. "Cassius Clay, Celso Arcilla. Get the drift?" the smart aleck replied. Arcilla, of course, is the Spanish word for your everyday clay. Would an Avellana be pleased when he finds out his family name means hazel nut? Would one be pleased if he discovers his family name, the regal-sounding Almendra actually means almond? Would a Manzano love apples more and perhaps appropriate the fruit's likeness, if they had one, in their coat-of-arms? Would one like it if his family name translates to horseradish (Rabano) or hatchet (Machado)?

A common noun as a family name could, of course, be quite quaint in that long-ago era, particularly if it is evocative of elegance or strength, brings to mind something European, thus, it might not have been so bad if yours is Crisol ("crucible"), Regala ("gunwale"), de la Fuente ("of the fountain"), de la Torre ("of the tower"), Torre ("tower"), Peña ("rock"), Batalla ("battle"), Bordado ("embroidery", "needlework"), Piano, or Jardin ("garden"). They were, of course, of much lower prestige value than Magno ("great"), Caballero ("a gentleman"), Lucero ("a bright star"), Lumbrera (" a luminary"), Genio ("a genius") or the names of Spanish cities Valencia, Barcelona, Toledo, Madrid, Villadolid, Avila, Ferrer, Caceres, Aragon, Toledo and Segovia, slipped into the list by a homesick Castila maybe, who knows?