Follow
The Philippines has had a considerably large Chinese diaspora even before the Spanish arrived. When the Spanish conducted its first census of the islands in 1591, there were about 15,000 ethnic Chinese among the total population of around 667,000. As these immigrants were being registered, some of them had their full Chinese names erroneously listed as their surnames and their descendants would carry this name down the line. Notable examples include Ongpin, Limkakeng and Pempengco. The Causing surname is possibly another example of this case and, thus, would have been the name of the family's original ancestor. The first element, "Cau-", is possibly derived from 高, a common Chinese surname meaning "high" or "tall" and is read as "kau" in Hokkien (although it is sometimes pronounced as "ko," whence the variant surnames "Co" and "Kho") and "gāo" in Mandarin, which is another surname borne by some recent Chinese immigrants in the Philippines. The second element, "-sing" is more difficult to trace with certainty. It is possibly a Hispanicized rendering of 誠, which means "sincere" and is read as either "chiâⁿ" or "sèng" in Hokkien. Although it is not a popular name in the Chinese-speaking world today, it is a name element found commonly among Min Nan speakers. And so, if the theory is correct, the original ancestor of the Causing clan would have originally been named. "Kau Sèng" or "Kau Chiâⁿ."
Recently, however, the Cebuano branch of the Causing clan (specifically in Barili) purportedly opted to remove the final “-g” in the surname to avoid Sinophobic attacks from the ruling Spaniards.