Posted by Al Chinn (209.195.79.66) on April 24, 2008 at 22:22:28:
In Reply to: origin of the name yam posted by amy on April 19, 2008 at 18:01:50:
While the majority of Chinese immigrants to the Philippines came from Fujian Province, some also came from Guangdong Province.
If you look at the list of Chinese-Filipino "surnames" ending in "son or zon" some of them are hierarchical in designation and there appear to be a mix of Hokkien and Cantonese dialects in the transliterations. Here are some examples: Sason(Hokkien)/Samson (Cantonese) to mean 3rd grandson or Sison/Sayson to mean 4th grandson. In like manner I believe your Yamzon is of Cantonese origin and is probably the same as Quimson in Hokkien.
Yam/Quim most likely means 9th which is a special character taken from the Celestial Stems known in Mandarin as ren. So your Yamzon means 9th grandson.
http://houseofchinn.com