There are several names attributed to present-day Cavite City. Its early
settlers, who were Tagalogs, called it "Tangway," meaning peninsula.
The name "Cavite" evolved from the word Kawit or Cauit meaning
"hook" as people from other places refer to it, referring to the
hook-shaped land along the coast of Bacoor Bay. It was mispronounced by the
Spaniards as "Kawite" or "Cavite" there being no
"K" in the Castillan alphabet, then changing "w" to
"v" so as to conform to their accentuation. The Chinese traders or
the Sangleys who came to Cavite to do business with the natives called it Keit,
a corruption of the word Kawit
