Recently, the surname Discaya has become synonymous with greed and corruption. The contractor Discaya couple has been grilled in the Senate inquiry on corruption in flood-control projects. It is interesting to look into the possible origins of the Discaya surname and while many insist that most Filipino surnames were simply assigned to or chosen by families, it cannot be denied that many are never random. As most recent reliable records indicate, the surname Discaya is carried by 3,166 people and ranks 5,470th among surnames in the country; the related family name Descaya is carried by 631 people and is the 28,930th country’s most common last name. It is most populous in the Bikol region, where 1,359 individuals carry it in 52 cities and municipalities in the region. Only the surname Discaya appears in the Catalogo Alfabetico de Apellidos, the catalog of names that accompanied the Claveria surname decree of 1849. As a surname, it also has many possible roots, something we will explore today.
The most probable explanation is that Discaya comes from Descayo or Discayo, variants that reflect how the Spanish letter "o" was often switched to "a", and vice-versa. In practice, the -o/-a ending difference is most common with adjective-based surnames (Hermoso/Hermosa, Bueno/Buena, Moreno/Morena). In many cases, the -a forms are rarer, but they appear in Philippine records most likely due to regional variations or adoption of placenames that used the feminine form. In Spanish, the verb cayar/caer means “to fall.” Forms like descayo could suggest “fell down” or “decline.”
A second possibility links the name to Descallar, a documented surname in the Visayas, especially Bohol. In Spanish, descalzo means “barefoot”. Surnames like Descalzo and Descals exist in Spain, and Descallar may be a variant of the same family of words. FamilySearch records show names like Francisco Descallar in Bohol in the late 1800s. Given how -llar and -ya sound nearly identical, Descallar could have shifted into Discaya in some regions.
A third possible but less-clear theory points to geography. Vizcaya (also spelled Biscaya) is the name of a province in the Basque Country of Spain and as a surname, Vizcaya/Viscaya is well established in the Philippines. The etymology traces Bizkaia, which refers to the hilly northern coastal region. Because early handwriting often blurred the letters B, V, and even D, some families listed as Vizcaya could easily have appeared in records as Discaya, especially in Bicol where the name is concentrated.
So which root is right? The safest answer is that Discaya most likely comes from Descayo/Descallar through the natural simplification of sounds (ll → y). Etymologies remind us that surnames are not accidents. They tell us how people heard, wrote, and passed on words. Whether Discaya once meant “to fall”, “barefoot”, or even pointed to the Basque hills of Vizcaya, its journey shows how Spanish names were reshaped by Philippine tongues and parish pens until they fell into the forms we use today.
It is interesting that while the Spaniards clearly did not include obvious negative words like “kawat” or “nakaw” in the list of surnames to be adopted by unsuspecting indios, words like “Ticasticas” (deceive or defraud), Limbong/ Limbongan (cheat/er), Camcam (embezzle), Ngilad (lie), Magtulis (rob), and Cupit (pilfer/filch) still made the cut. It is even more interesting to dream that the Discaya surname's meaning "to fall" might also soon apply to the eventual fall of our corrupt politicians and government workers. Hopefully, they would meet their "Discaya".