Talk Story
When the name’s the same,
you can also get the blameAs 215 Honolulu residents named Dela Cruz
probably know, there's a shortage of unique
family names in the Philippines.THE LEES start on page 495 of the Honolulu white pages and run all the way to page 502 (there are also 239 listings for Li). The Wongs begin on 954 and march proudly back to page 960.
Wong and Lee are recognized globally as common names, but in Honolulu there are also 199 Shimabukuros, an Okinawan surname that doesn't trip lightly off your average haole's tongue. Perhaps that's why, when the Donald Duck restaurant in Kaimuki changed hands in 1953, new owner Bea Shimabukuro renamed it Bea's Drive-In, not Shimabukuro's.
I can relate, if only a bit. The Honolulu phone book lists 11 Flanagans, a Flanagin, five Flanigans and two Flannagans. I know that's chickenfeed compared to the Lees.
John E. "Jack" Flanagan and I keep each other's telephone numbers and addresses handy to forward misdirected calls and letters. For years, people gave me parental credit for Jack's son, Punahou swimming coach John Michael, with whom I share an entire name but little aquatic talent.
John M. Flanigan, a college math teacher, is a frequent letter to the editor writer. The first time he sent me an e-mail I had to look twice, thinking I'd somehow written to myself.
I can only imagine what Honolulu's 32 residents named "S. Lee" go through. Although 11 S. Lees included their street addresses in the directory, the other 21 S. Lees didn't. Except for the phone number, their listings are identical.
DUPLICATE names -- amusing, interesting and confusing in Honolulu, where the population is 876,156 -- are an acute problem in the Philippines, where the population recently topped 78 million.
As 215 Honolulu residents named Dela Cruz probably know, there's a shortage of unique family names in the Philippines. It all started in 1521 with the arrival of Spanish Roman Catholicism. Newly baptized Filipinos took religiously auspicious surnames, such as Santos or Bautista -- or Dela Cruz.
These names were supposed to bring good luck but, when thousands of individuals chose identical names, they created an immediate administrative nightmare. The problem has persisted to this day.
In an attempt to solve it, Governor General Narcisco Claveria published a list of acceptable names in 1849. According to Thursday's Wall Street Journal, regional administrators missed the point and gave everyone in some towns the same names, such as Reyes or Villanueva.
THERE ARE now 82 Villanuevas listed in the Honolulu directory and 172 Reyes. In the Manila directory, the Reyes fill 13 pages.
For Claveria, the problem with identical names was "confusion with regard to the administration of justice, government, finance and public order, as well as far-reaching moral, civil and religious consequences." He feared people were getting married not knowing they were blood relations.
Today's Filipino identity crisis involves mundane issues like trying to get a passport, or ordering a cell phone when a deadbeat with the same name hasn't paid his bills, or being arrested for a crime committed by someone who happens to share your name.
The upshot is that newborn Filipinos are getting some very, well ... interesting names. The Journal ticked off a few: Jejomar (a contraction of Jesus, Joseph and Mary), Kurtney (a unique spelling of Courtney), Jhoyce (Joyce, but with a silent letter thrown in), Quenrik (Enrique rearranged with an extra "k") and Willian (a cross between William and Lillian).
Telephone worker Hitler Manila, we're told, got his shocking name from his father. He says he doesn't share his namesake's beliefs, but he enjoys having a unique name so much that he named his sons Himmler and Hess.
Go figgah.
John Flanagan is the Star-Bulletin's contributing editor.
He can be reached at: jflanagan@starbulletin.com.