What if Philippines is not called Philippines?

Yes you are right that name of our country came from King Felipe II of Spain thats why it was called Filipinas then later change to Philippines. As far as I know, several countries from the west are in search and exploration of new lands. Those were the Great Britain, France, Spain and Portugal were the countries who sailed from west to east to discover new lands. We are aware from our history that the natives of our land were the Aetas, Indonesians and Malaysians. If you will observe, we have a lot of common to Malaysians not only in physical features but also in some our language like salamat (thank you) is selamat in Malaysian. Some ethnic tribes here especially those at the northern part, have similarities with the ethnic tribes in Malaysia. Dr. Jose P. Rizal was tagged as the Pride of the Malay Race There would be a possibility that our country can also be called Malaysia if our country was not called Philippines. Its just a thought.

Hi, taki_takaishi! That is a great question! I have thought about this a few weeks ago as well. If it was not invaded by Spain, it may not be the same name that it is as of now. It could be called, The Spainard's. I was thinking about what our country would have been called as well.

Of course it will be a different name or maybe we are not even one whole country. When the Spaniards discovered us we were not united as one country but different small tribes that has their own leaders and were at war with each other at times. Our place might have been colonized by our neighboring bigger states such as Malaysia or Indonesia.

The name Philippines came from King Philip II of Spain, son of Spanish King and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Well, many years ago, Philippine lawmakers had been debating whether to change the name of our country or not, because the name Philippines alone is a symbol of colonialism and no dependent identity, so they were planning to change the name into MAHARLIKA which means regal, it is the name of the tribe of the early Filipinos who belong to the upper class. They said, it sounds more Filipino, but up to now their proposal has not approve. If the Philippines has not colonized by Spain, maybe Americans did, so the name could be more Americanized.LOL!may be it would be Georgia, in honor of the first US president George Washington.hehehhehe..But I will agree with Maharlika, if ever our constitution will proposed a name changing for our country. Mabuhay!

hello fellow lotters as answer to your question if we are not invaded by spaniards nor americans, i think the name of our country is Pearl of the east as it is written in our national anthem.

we'll have this hard to pronounce name for sure..

perhaps not.. as you said the name was some sort of a tribute to the king..if weren't invaded then we could have a Malayan sounding name..

Hello taki. Without the invasion from those foreign countries, I am sure that your country would have got a different name given by your own people without having a foreign name. What do you think, please?

Definitely not Philippines. But i just hoped were were colonized by some other country, perhaps non-Hispanic. Judging from history, Hispanic countries are famous for political instability and i think that is one undying contribution of Spain to our society.

then it might have been something with ur kings name or queens name or something similar to that

Obviously it will not, as what you said the name Philippines was a tribute to the King of Spain, so if we were not invaded by Spain then there would be no Philippine islands and we will not be called "Pinoys". But in my own opinion, i'm glad we been colonized by Spain, Philippines is a nice name for a country and proud of it..^_^

[b][/b]It's hard to answer, since so many different cultures have come here, even before the Spaniards. Well maybe as the other commenters said it's a Malay sounding name, coz they're the first one who came here. Maybe Datu Putian..LOL...what do you think? :D

Could it be Lapu-Lapu? ha ha ha.. I don't know. But if our country is Lapu-Lapu, then what are we called if not Filipinos?

hahaha its funny when i think of it... do you think aside from pinoy or filipino? what will be called for us? :D

MALAYA is a probability the Philippines will be called. But are we ready to for that name? I have to thank Spain for giving us the name PHILIPPINES, don't you agree? We have anyway been blessed being Catholics ......

I wish I could have discovered a countary then I could have called it "sanuanu". Nice name to a country isn't it? Okay, my country discover is on and one day when I will find a new one, my goal will be achieved LOL!

I do not know what will be the name of our country in case it was not discovered by a Spaniard. But one thing is for sure that it will still be names after the one who discovered it. I have an idea but it is not as good as the name Philippines. I would only suggest Luzviminda for Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao as the three divisions of this country. Anyway whatever the name is it is still important to know our country's name origin.

our country has a sweet name...i'm personally happy with its name...as shakespeare would say..what's in a name?..hahaha...but we are a country of sunnyand very hospitable and warm people...that is the most important!i'm proud to be in the philippines!..the philippines is the land of many abused overseas workers!!!!let's be aware of this!they say many unpleasant things about us but actually many parts of the world need our talent...no ne can ever come to the kind of perseverance that a filipino has in ife..we tale all kinds of blows..but we arealways proud to say that WE ARE FROM THE PHILIPPINES!..so i think that the name isnt the main issue here..

Good day taki_takaishi. In my own base opinion if the Philippines is not called Philippines, may be name our country will came from the idea of our own people and not in the other country who invaded us. Then i guess it will be came from "ALIBATA". Then the name idea of the name is based in "people who survived in many invaders which is the other country". Even though the name of our country is named after the king in the other country, that's fine to me because people here are proud enough in that given named then as we notice we see that most of the people showing that they really like the name of our country. Many people who are very popular here in our country make a unique trademark with our country, like Master Rapper Francis M. Who make the design of the "THREE star and a Sun". Which became popular here in our country because it is some kind of a sort proud of being a Filipino and it's symbolized that you are proud also with your native land Philippines. Well, i think even our country is named "Philippines" we also have give a name in our very own language which is the "Pilipinas", with this word i think we can say that it is come from our own idea. I also think that our heroes in our country are also find the name of the country good because they did not request to change it. Well, if i will be given a chance to give my own idea with the name of the country, i think the name that i will suggest is come from the name of a Hero in our country or maybe it is somekind of people who all give the lives to be free in the invaders. Then the word must be made in our very own language to show being unique than the other country. Well, that's all my response in your forum topic discussion entitled "what if Philippines is not called Philippines?". I hope i give a good response and i hope i give good share with my thoughts. That's all! Thank you! Happy posting to everyone of us and happy earning! Good luck and have a nice day!

For sure a more Asian sounding name! HAHA! Is there such a "more Asian" sounding name? HAHA! Because the center of our country is Manila (I am not saying that there is no other centers, like Cebu, Davao, etc. I will just use Manila for the sake of this discussion and besides it is the capital of the country) and it was called Maynilad before by the locals, maybe if were not invaded by the Spaniards we could have MAYNILAD! HAHA! What do you think? Maynilad - more "Asian* sounding" right? HAHA! *I am not using Filipino because it is a term given by the Spaniards for us, so we can say that it is not "so native" to use. HAHA!Happy MyLotting!