Magaoay Meaning and History

Magaoay Meaning

While researching my surname, I came across Katálogo ng mga Apelyidong Pilipino. In that blog post, they provided meanings for some Filipino surnames.

I went to the letter M and looked for Ilocano surnames. There’s Mabalo, which means “to be widowed”. Mabayag means “a long time”. Macadengdeng means “vegetable cook”. Macalipat means “forgetful”. Madarang means “to burn”.

Magaoay had no meaning.

I looked for gaoay in online Ilocano dictionaries but had no luck.

Lost interest, moved on, and eventually forgot about it.

My curiosity sparked again when I heard the phrase “Adda gaoay na”. Maybe it wasn’t gibberish after all.

This time, I searched old Ilocano dictionaries online.

Magaoay or Magaway or Magauay

Unlike gaoay, the dictionaries mentioned above have no entries for gaway or gauay.

The Magaway version allegedly came about to make it easier for Americans to read.

Only Magauay appears in the Catalogo (1849), but I found an earlier christening record for a certain Camilo and Camila Magaoay dated 1829.

Asking what the original is assumes that they are variants of each other. For all we know, they can also be distinct from one another.

But that single-letter difference might just be a typo.

My great-great-grandfather is Magauay. His children were Magauay. His grandchildren supposedly Magauay became Magaoay. Two of them in their marriage contracts, signed their names as Magauay, but the typewritten entries say Magaoay.

History

As per my pops, some clans from Bacarra, Ilocos Norte scouted the plains of Cagayan Valley with their nuangs searching for a new place to live.

We don’t know what their motives were. Were they forced to leave? Were they offered fertile land that they couldn’t resist? Whatever their reason may have been, it must have been very significant for them to leave their homeland and never return. Or maybe they simply wanted something new and no one was even bothering them 🙃.

For the Magaoay clan, They choose Tumauini, Reina Mercedes, Cauayan, Angadanan, Aurora, and etc.

Among those people is Pedro Magauay. He is actually my great-great-grandfather.

Wip 🚧.