WHAT’S IN A NAME
During the Spanish colonial period, a decree was made for all Filipinos to have surnames. In some cases, the surnames were localized like “Agbuya” and “Ulep” which means “watch” and “cloud” in Ilocano dialect. There was actually a catalog/book created listing all of the surnames. The catalog contains common names like Mendoza and Garcia, but also some embarrassing ones like Baboy, Gago, Colangot, and Malibog. Unlucky were the families that were stuck with those names.
My family name is not popular but it’s in that book although the spelling has changed over time. Originally, it was Vitervo then there’s the more popular Viterbo (there’s Viterbo University in USA and Viterbo province in Italy) but with just 79,477th worldwide popularity surname ranking according to Forebears website. From our family line, the incorrect spelling to Veterbo started when my father was registered at birth. So if you do not have a popular surname, you have probably experienced spelling out each letter like in my case – Victory, Echo, Tango, Echo, Romeo, Bravo, Oscar.
In the Bible, there are those whose name changed. Abram became Abraham, Saul became Paul. That change is not simply on the name but an important event or a change in the person itself. For Abraham, it was covenant with God. For Paul, it was from being a persecutor to preacher.
Our name is our legacy. I am glad that I haven’t heard of a murderer, pusher, or rapist who bears my surname. My father Anselmo Sr was a preacher, my brother Anselmo Jr is now a preacher and I am convincing his son Anselmo III to be a preacher as well (and I hope that am going to be one day). It would be an honor to associate our name as a family of preachers. Remember, “A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, Loving favor rather than silver and gold.” (Prov 22: 1).
Extra: We named our company Vetter Systems and our mission is to help Small to Medium Businesses (SMBs) grow and manage their business better by providing them with powerful IT tools & applications, and quality services. In short, IT gets better with us. We are not here just to “make money”, we build relationships. Finally, an IT company that truly cares.
