Why It's Called That
Is Luzon named after a rice mortar?
They say Luzon is named after the lusong, the wooden mortar for pounding rice. The oldest records, from Ming China to Pigafetta's word list, leave a strange clue, but no record of a naming.
0:58 · Luzon · October 8, 2026
The story
Its heart is a legend, and the film calls it one. The dates and laws in it are documented.
They say Luzon is named after a rice mortar. The oldest records leave a strange clue. The name is older than Spain's arrival. In 1405, Ming China sent envoys to a country it wrote as Lu-song.
Around 1515, the Portuguese writer Tomé Pires described Lução merchants in Malacca, from an island ten days' sail beyond Borneo. In 1521, Pigafetta, on Magellan's voyage, wrote of a large island called Lozon. Here's the twist. In the same account, his list of Malay words translates mortar as lozon.
That is why scholars link Luzon to lusong, the wooden mortar for pounding rice. But no record shows anyone naming the island after a mortar. It's an explanation, not an event. In 1570, at Manila, a Spanish notary wrote that the natives called it Luzon the greater.
The name was theirs before it was anyone else's. What do you call the lusong where you're from? Tell us in the comments.
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