Why the Name for The Philippines Starts With a ‘Ph’ and Its Residents Are Known as Filipinos With an ‘F’

Patrick FooteofName Explaintook a look at why the Philippines is spelled with a Ph" while its residents and its culture (demonym) are called Filipinos, which starts with an F".

It turns out that the island nation was named after Spanish King Felipe II (Phillip) and its residents were known as las Filipinas. It was the introduction of English to the country that transformed the country name to The Philippines, but the name for the residents was kept the same.

The islands were named the Philippines first and then that demonym of Filipino was formed and applied to the people after the matter....Philippines is simply the English translation of the name Spain gave them in Spanish. They were dubbed las Filipinas.

The reason for changing one but not the other isn't all that clear after all.

For some reason when the English language got its mitts on these names, it decided to not keep things nice and neat. The country's nam was translated start with a pH while the demonym was left as it was, in Spanish and starts with an F.