Etymology of the Surname Jaranilla

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Have you ever wondered what the surname Jaranilla mean?

You will not find a definition for it. But after doing some research, I came up with the words JARAN and ILLA.

The name Jaran is an English baby name which means 'cry of rejoicing'. (Source: sheknow.com) while hile Illa as a girls' name has its root in Hebrew, which means "tree". Illa is a version of Ilana (Hebrew). Associated with tree. (Source: thinbabynames.com)

So by definition, Jaranilla means "Cry of Rejoicing and Tree" or "A tree crying with rejoice" or "Happy Tree?"

This then explains my fascination and love for trees.

I think that I shall never see A poem lovely as a tree. A tree whose hungry mouth is prest Against the earth's sweet flowing breast; A tree that looks at God all day, And lifts her leafy arms to pray; A tree that may in summer wear A nest of robins in her hair; Upon whose bosom snow has lain; Who intimately lives with rain. Poems are made by fools like me, But only God can make a tree. - Joyce Kilmer

I also tried JARA and NILLA. Jara means RockRose (flower) while NILLA is short for Vanilla. So if you combine the two, you get "RockRose Vanilla" or "White RockRose"

So which one do you prefer? A Tree Crying with Rejoice or Vanilla Colored RockRose? For me I like them both.

So how did we get it?

Upon further research, I came across this information:

On November 21, 1849, Governor General Narcisco Claveria y Zaldua issued a decree that ordered all natives of the Philippines to receive a Spanish surname. The Catalogo Alfabetico de Apellidos was used by officials in every town found on the colony. Surnames were either chosen or assigned to families.

Catalogo Alfabetico de Apellidos

(source http://carcarfamilies.wordpress.com)

In another post from the website Positively Filipino, it was said that to collect taxes more efficiently, Claveria in 1849 called a meeting of all the provincial governors in the country. Gleefully armed with his Catalogo, he instructed them to give a surname to all heads of families under their jurisdiction. The parish priests helped.

He tore pages of the Catalogo and gave them to those present. Consequently, what happened was unexpected. Since the lists of surnames were listed in alphabetical order, provinces appeared to have surnames beginning with a certain letter of the alphabet. An appropriate example is like tearing several pages from a telephone book. The likelihood of having the same beginning letter is high.

In my province of Mindoro alone, in Lubang community, the surnames of most people begin with “V” -- Ventura, Villamin, Villaraza, Villarosa, Villarica, Villavicencio,” Villaclara,” etc. In my hometown of Calapan, Oriental Mindoro, the surnames in my class included Acedillo, Acedera, Abaca, Abadilla, Abierto, Acera, Aboboto, Agay, Acasio, Adeva, Alvaro, Alfalfaro, Alcancia, Abolencia, Abadejo, Abad and so on.

In the town of Miagao, Iloilo, all surnames began with “M.”. (Same with Jaro and Jaranilla)

This surnaming program was enforced with severe penalties. One example was Dr. José Rizal’s mother. She was arrested and made to walk all the way from Biñan to the provincial capital of Laguna because among other things, she refused to use the name Realonda, which was assigned to her.

This is the reason why in the Philippines, we carry Hispanic surnames. They were allocated to us by decree. It never came from our own ancient naming patterns. In effect, it was an intrusion. It truncated us from our own personal identity and cast us off from our inner core of who we really are. (source: Positively Filipino)

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