Anything under the sun
Origins of place names (13)
After land formations
San Dionisio – During the Spanish time, there was a fishing village called Lakdayan (from lakday – to cross) because one had to cross a small part of the sea to reach it. Its leader was Dionisio who cleared the place for settlement.
When it became a pueblo, the people wanted it named in memory of him. But because the parish priest would not name it after a person but after a saint, the town was named San Dionisio.
Dingle – Formerly, this town was named Ba-ong because its old site was on a depressed area surrounded by hills making it look like a ba-ong (big frying pan) though others say it was named after a tuber – ba-ong.
Later, the town was transferred to another place where dingle, a kind of clay, was abundant. Hence, the new name, Dingle.
Bacolod City – In Negros Occidental, Bacolod was named after buklod-buklod (small hill). The original settlement was in Magsungay on a bank of a brook. It was called Magsungay because there the flow of the river meet in opposite direction (sungay) the tidal movement of the sea.
Later, because of the Muslim raids, the inhabitants moved to a higher ground (buklod).
Iloilo City – When the Spaniards arrived, they discovered a small fishing village at a cape jutting out towards the sea like a nose (irong). This was called by the natives as Irong-irong. The Chinese traders called it Ilong-ilong because of pronunciation difficulty.
The Spaniards, also because of language difficulty called it Yloilo. Still later, the Americans anglicized in Iloilo.