Jose Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonzo Realonda… Whew!

Name, it is the most important information about ourselves. You cannot have your identity and some other information if you don’t have a name. Everything starts with your name. What’s the story behind your name? Every name has its own history but what is the story of Dr. Jose Rizal’s real name. We always discuss the life and works of Rizal but we never tackled about his name. Why did he choose Rizal as his surname and not his father’s last name which is Mercado?

The real name of our beloved Dr. Jose Rizal was Jose Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonzo Realonda. Want to know the meaning of his name???

Doctor – his profession (Ophthalmologist)

Jose – It’s San Jose’s festival when he was born (it came from San “Jose”)

Protacio – It came from their calendar (also a saint)

Rizal – means “Racial” it is their main occupation it means “green fields”

Mercado – means “market” it indicates their Chinese merchant roots

Alonzo – came from his mother

Realonda – came from his auntie (ninang)

Knowing his real name how did he come up to Rizal not Mercado? During the Spaniards time Mercado was a hot name from them because of the history that Paciano has an encounter with. He changes his surname to protect his identity. He chooses to use Rizal (middle name) as his surname because it means “illustrado” during the Spanish era. Also, there is a law that indicates that Filipino’s should change their surname during that time.

                                                                                                                          By: Faraon, Katrina L.