Where have you got your name Manila?

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Have you ever wonder why Manila was called Manila? Where does the word/name came from? Well, if you’re shaking your head now and still found no answer in that question, I say this, you are not the only Filipino who doesn’t know the origin of the name of the country’s capital city. 


Image: www.lamudi.com.ph

I don’t know if I were absent when it was taught in school or old enough that I’ve already forgotten it, but I scratched my head, felt low because I’ve been living my entire life in Manila and it did not even occurred to me to learn where the place got its name. Glad that the hosts of the show “The History Hustle” saved us the effort in researching and simply explained the answer through a short video.


Image: wikipedia.org

According to the video, Manila came from two words “may” and “nila”. “May” is the tagalog word for “there is” while “Nila” means a flowering mangrove plant. Nila commonly grew on the marshy shores of the bay in early time. And like any other origin of words here in the Philippines, the two words were combined which gave us– “may (there is)” + “nila” = Maynila or “there is some Nila.” 


 Brilliant isn’t it! Only here in the Philippines!



Source: HistoryAsia

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