Zamboanga del Norte (Cebuano: Amihanang Zamboanga; Subanon: Utara Sembwangan; Filipino: Hilagang Zamboanga), officially the Province of Zamboanga del Norte, is a province in the Philippines situated within the Zamboanga Peninsula region in Mindanao. Its capital and largest city is Dipolog and the province borders Zamboanga del Sur and Zamboanga Sibugay to the south, Misamis Occidental to the east, and the Sulu Sea to the west. Zamboanga del Norte is the largest province of the Zamboanga Peninsula region by land area covering 7,301.00 square kilometres (2,818.93 sq mi). Zamboanga del Norte is the 26th populous province in the Philippines.

History

The name of Zamboanga is the Hispanicized spelling of the Sinama term for 'mooring place' samboangan (also spelled sambuangan; and in Subanen, sembwangan), from the root word samboang ('mooring pole'). 'Samboangan' was the original name of Zamboanga City, from where the name of the peninsula is derived from. 'Samboangan' is well-attested in Spanish, British, French, German, and American historical records from as far back as the 17th century. This is commonly contested by folk etymologies which instead attribute the name of Zamboanga to the Indonesian word jambangan (claimed to mean 'place of flowers' but means 'pot' or 'bowl'), usually with claims that all ethnic groups in Zamboanga were 'Malays'. However, this name has never been attested in any historical records prior to the 1960s.