TRIVIA: Juan dela Cruz the symbolic name in the Philippines.
....But did you know that the “Juan dela Cruz” monicker wasn’t invented by a Filipino.
It was in fact coined by Robert McCulloch Dick, a Scottish court reporter then working for the Manila Times, in 1902. He used the term, while observing that it is the most... common name on police blotters, as a generic reference to the Filipino people, a term that is still widely used even today.
Etymologically speaking, the “Juan dela Cruz” name did not originate in the Philippines. It was a name incorporated from the then Spanish Governor-General of the Philippines Narciso Claveria’s decree in 1849. It is a decree that orders for a systematic distribution of names and surnames to all Filipinos (note: At the time before 1849, a large part of the Filipino population doesn’t use a surname which makes it hard to distinguish them or census them individually.). Some Filipino families and the Chinese mestizos, at that time, retained their original family surnames but most adapted to the more Spanish sounding names, like Juan dela Cruz.
The 70’s Philippine rock icon “Juan dela Cruz band” was also influenced by the symbolic name promoting the band as the first “true pinoy rock band”.
Etymologically speaking, the “Juan dela Cruz” name did not originate in the Philippines. It was a name incorporated from the then Spanish Governor-General of the Philippines Narciso Claveria’s decree in 1849. It is a decree that orders for a systematic distribution of names and surnames to all Filipinos (note: At the time before 1849, a large part of the Filipino population doesn’t use a surname which makes it hard to distinguish them or census them individually.). Some Filipino families and the Chinese mestizos, at that time, retained their original family surnames but most adapted to the more Spanish sounding names, like Juan dela Cruz.
The 70’s Philippine rock icon “Juan dela Cruz band” was also influenced by the symbolic name promoting the band as the first “true pinoy rock band”.
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