This law included the catálogo alfabético de apellidos: a list of 61,000 surnames from which every Filipino family had to choose under Spanish rule, mainly for tax, census and religious purposes.

For many, this month is a reminder of the moment most Filipino families started using official surnames, made possible by the decree enacted by Governor-General Narciso Claveria in 1849.

But other Chinese do neither, choosing instead to adopt a purely Filipino surname. In a lecture sponsored by the Museum Foundation of the Philippines on October 11, 2003, the speaker, Maribel Ongpin, ...