Name Change for the Philippines |History: The Roadmap to the Future--Asia

This post starts off largely as a response to an AsianWeek article about a proposed name change for the Philippines, a Southeast Asian country named after a sixteenth century Spanish monarch. The post could end up being updated occasionally.

The Philippines should have a name change.

For romantic reasons, having the country named after a foreign conqueror is shameful and an embarrassment, especially in an Asian cultural sense. A couple of states are named after foreign Europeans, at least in part--Colombia and the United States of America, for instance. However, in those cases, the bulk of the population and leadership is not indigenous. So what if their country is named after a European foreigner? They are the descendants of European foreigners themselves. The majority of Filipinos' bloodlines were in the Philippines long before the arrival of the Spaniards, and few Filipinos have any discernible amount of European blood; even fewer have considerable amounts. So having their country named after a foreign 'white' guy who (indirectly) conquered them and set in motion the history which has led to the decrepit state of the Philippines today, is an enormous shame.

Pragmatically, the orthography relating to the Philippines and Filipinos is a valid issue. Just in the case of the Internet, to gather information on the Philippines there could be searches for: Philippines, Philippine, Phillippines, Phillipines, Filipines, Filipino, Filipina, Filipinos, Philippino, Philippinos, Phillippinos, Pilipino, etc., not to mention colloquialisms such as 'Pinoy.' In contrast, just 'Japan' and 'Japanese' soundly cover the country and people and language of that nation.

'Philippine Islands' is also an embarrassment. Makes the country sound as though the Philippines were a Pacific Island country. While Polynesia should not be disrespected, Polynesia doesn't get that much respect, either. The Philippines is a nation of almost 100 million. Tourism can't provide for all, and the people of tourist countries generally aren't greatly admired. (Yeah, yeah. People should be admired on the basis of individual merit; unfortunately, the world doesn't work that way, and nationalities are lumped together and stereotyped.)

A name change for the Philippines will not suddenly turn the country into a developed state. However, a name change will be more beneficial than just being the 'Philippines', if only for the greater ease for potential investors looking for information about [the former Philippines]* along with the moral boost from an indigenous name.

Also of note, the main indigenous language of the Philippines, Tagalog, doesn't even have the 'f' phoneme, and as with many East Asian languages, 'L' and 'R' sound similar and closer to 'R'. Apparently such is the case with many of the Philippines' myriad indigenous languages. How lame is having a country whose name much of the country cannot properly pronounce?

*
Filipinos should choose a name that is: no more than three syllables; of short length in terms of letters (around 5-8); easy to spell and have basically one sensible way to spell; and be relevant to the [former Filipinos] especially pre-colonially relevant. Similarly, there should be only one spelling for the people and language (or one for both, i.e. Chinese [people] and Chinese [language]). Look at the names of the major countries of the world, and you will see a trend for short compactness. Even exceptions such as the United States of America or the United Kingdom (of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) often are shortened, to USA or UK, for instance.

LINKS

"Name Change for the Philippines" (AsianWeek--chose this title for the post before reading article).

A rational name change would make accessing information about the Philippines easier for foreigner investors, ordinary foreigners interested in the Philippines, and Filipinos themselves. Additionally, a suitable name change could help promote social unity and national pride/confidence--both grossly lacking among Filipinos--separate from colonial history for the Filipino people.