Jose Rizal: On the Full Name of the Filipino Hero

Editor’s note: Author Jensen DG. Mañebog explains here in detail how Jose Rizal got his full name “José Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda.”

The so-called “Jose Rizal full name”

Many know that the full name of Jose Rizal is “Jose Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda.” But, you bet, not many are aware of how our beloved Filipino hero got each element of the name.

So let us slice up and explain each of the “name” in the so-called “Jose Rizal full name.”

Jose Protacio

The hero would usually use only the name “Jose” but officially, he has two first names: “Jose Protacio” (the last is also spelled in some references as ‘Protasio’).

The hero was given the name Jose Protacio in honor of two saints:

(1) Saint Joseph, of whom Jose’s mother was a devotee, and

(2) Saint Protacio, the patron saint for June 19, the birthdate of Rizal. (Read also: The Story of the Moth, Jose Rizal, and his Mother)

Rizal Mercado

The combination “Rizal Mercado” are the paternal surnames of Rizal. Let us trace how it happened that way.

Jose Rizal’s paternal great-great grandfather, Chinese merchant Domingo Lamco, adopted the name ‘Mercado’ which means ‘market’. But Jose’s father, Francisco, who eventually became primarily a farmer, adopted the surname ‘Rizal’ (originally ‘Ricial’, which means ‘the green of young growth’ or ‘green fields’). The name was suggested by a provincial governor who was a friend of the family.

But the new name (Rizal) caused confusion in the commercial affairs of the family. Don Francisco thus settled on the combination name ‘Rizal Mercado’ as a compromise (though he often just used his more known surname ‘Mercado’.)

When Paciano was a student at the College of San Jose, he used “Mercado” as his last name. But because he had gained notoriety with his links to Father Burgos of the ‘Gomburza,’ he suggested that Jose use the surname ‘Rizal’ for Jose’s own safety.

Commenting on using the name ‘Rizal’ in Ateneo, Jose once wrote: “My family never paid much attention [to our second surname Rizal], but now I had to use it, thus giving me the appearance of an illegitimate child!” (as cited in Arriza, 2012, para. 8)

But this very name suggested by Paciano to be used by his brother had become so well known by 1891, the year Jose finished his El Filibusterismo. As Jose wrote to a friend, “All my family now carry the name Rizal instead of Mercado because the name Rizal means persecution! Good! I too want to join them and be worthy of this family name …” (as cited in Arriza, 2012, para. 8)

“y”

In the Spanish world in Rizal’s time, the Spanish adopted the use of the copulative conjunction “y” (which means “and”) to differentiate one’s paternal and maternal surnames.

The use of “y” was sanctioned by the Ley de Registro Civil (Civil Registry Law) of 1870, which demanded birth certificates to specify the paternal and maternal surnames conjoined with y. The usual order, therefore is:

a. First name/s (given)

b. Paternal surname/s

c. The conjunction particle “y”

d. Maternal surname/s

Instead of “y,” the conjunction “e” (which also means “and”) is used when the maternal name begins with ‘I’, ‘Hi’ or ‘Y’ (e.g., Patricio Diaz e Ibarra).

Alonso Realonda

What’s left, the combination “Alonso Realonda” (“Alonso” is also spelled in some books as “Alonzo) is of course Jose Rizal’s maternal surname/s. How did it become a combination, too?

It is believed that Doña Teodora’s family descended from Lakandula, the last native king of Tondo. (For young Filipino generations, Lakandula has to be distinguished from the unofficial ‘Hari ng Tondo’, Asiong Salonga, the Manila kingpin who was immortalized in the movie incidentally by Laguna’s former governor E. R. Ejercito.)

Teodora’s great-grandfather was Eugenio Ursua (of Japanese descent) who married a Filipina named Benigna. Regina, their daughter, married a Filipino-Chinese lawyer of Pangasinan, Manuel de Quintos. Lorenzo Alberto Alonso, a well-off Spanish-Filipino mestizo of Biñan, took as his ‘significant other’ Brigida Quintos, daughter of Manuel and Regina Quintos. The Lorenzo-Brigida union produced five children, the second of them was Jose Rizal’s mother, Teodora Alonso Quintos.

But through the Claveria decree of 1849 which changed the Filipino native surnames, the Alonsos adopted the surname Realonda, in lieu of Quintos. Rizal’s mother thus became Teodora Alonso Realonda. Jose thus inherited the surnames “Alonso Realonda.”

Again, the “Jose Rizal full name”

So, there you go. That is how it went down in history that our hero’s name is … (take a deep breath before stating it … but recite it again nonetheless to memorize it) … “Jose Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda”! (Related: Jose Rizal: A Biographical Outline)

Copyright by Jensen DG. Mañebog

Jensen DG. Mañebog, the contributor, is an author of textbooks and professorial lecturer emeritus in the graduate school of a state university in Metro Manila. His unique e-books on Rizal (available online) comprehensively tackle, among others, the respective life of Rizal’s parents, siblings, co-heroes, and girlfriends. (e-mail: [email protected])

Read Also:
The Interesting Tales of the Jose Rizal Family by Jensen DG. Mañebog

Read Also:
The Interesting Tales of the Jose Rizal Family by Jensen DG. Mañebog