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

Given the class conscious society where the social divide is absolute, was the list meant to further draw the line between the insider from the outsider, the haves from the have-nots, the Noble ("aristocratic") from the Pobre ("indigent"), the Agregado ("attaché") from the Magistrado ("magistrate", in the Spanish era a lowly court position), the Abogado and Doctor the from the Herrera ("blacksmith"), the General, Capital and the Coronel from the Corporal and the Ballestero ("someone who operates a crossbow"), the Labrador ("manual laborer", "worker") from the Patron, the Pastora ("shepherdess") from the Estrella ("star") and the Duena ("owner of a house")? the Negrito from the Aleman ("German"), Romano, and the Ingles ("Englishman")?

Either as descriptive phrases or set phrases, villa rico, villa fuerte, villa señor and villa nueva, and their incarnations as Filipino family names Villarico, Villafuerte, Villaseñor and Villanueva, seem to signify acceptability; the bearer, an insider, of some social standing, and more importantly, accessible for parish census and taxation purposes. From the Spanish noun villa ("small town"), a synonym of poblacion, Villa (or de Villa) signify that the bearer is, among other things, within the Spanish scheme of things, inaabot ng kampana, starkly juxtaposing him against the outsider, the social outcast that is the cimarron or remontado, outlawed infideles who retreated to the forests and mountains to elude force labor and taxation- pointing to the very acute concept of insider-outsider in the Spanish colonial period.

Although Abad (abbot), Monasterio ("monastery"), Confesor ("confessor"), Monje ("monk"),Querubim ("cherubim") and Apostol ("apostle") may have also appeared in the Claveria list, the surnames in the Spanish Philippines indicated a direct friar linkage,  appropriated for friar offsprings, the same way Cruz ("cross") was appropriated for the illiterate farm hands who, when signing a legal form, merely drew a cross on the line. Did the mestizillo features and an appellation with celestial undertones, such as those above or family names such as San Pedro, Santa Ana, San Luis, Santiago (St. James, patron saint of Spain), Paraiso ("heaven", "paradise") and Divino ("divine"), spell some privileges when one, say, entered parochial school and colegio ("secondary school")? These days, the leaning is, of course, for half-breeds with foreign-sounding last names and a twang, a predilection one sees in talent searches and beauty contests.

What's in a name? a Pinoy writer once asked reminiscent of Shakespeare. Everything, he answered in the same breath. Would you worry if your family name translates to a certain four-legged animal, winged creature or sea mammal that breathes through a blowhole on the top of its head? Because animals are not created equal (but human beings are, if I may add), Cordero ("lamb") and Paloma ("dove"), because of their pronounced Christian denotations, are not in the same league as Ante ("elk", "buffalo"), Elefante, or Delfin ("dolphin"); Aguila and de Leon are not quite the same as Alano ("mastiff, a big smooth-haired dog of often tan or grayish coat and dark face").