Legend has it that the word “Tagaytay” came from “TAGA” meaning “to cut” and “ITAY” which means “Father”. A father and son were said to be on a wild boar hunt when the animal they were chasing turned and attacked them. As the boar charged towards the old man, the son cried “TAGA- ITAY”. The boy’s repeated shouts reverberated in the valleys of the ridge. Heard by the residents, hunters and wood gatherers, the cries became the subject of conversation for several days among the people in the countryside. In time, the place where the shouts came from became known as TAGAYTAY.

During the Philippine Revolution of 1896, the ridges and forests of Tagaytay became the sanctuary for revolutionaries including of those from nearby provinces. The passage to and from towns via Tagaytay added the word “Mananagaytay” to the native’s vocabulary. It means “to traverse ridges”.

At the outbreak of the Second World War, the 11th Airborne Division of Lieutenant General William Krueger’s 8th Army airdropped military supplies and personnel on the Tagaytay Ridge prior to the Liberation of Manila from the Japanese. A marker was installed in 1951 at the junction of the Manila-Canlubang-Nasugbu roads by the city officials in coordination with the Philippine Historical Institute.

Tagaytay became a chartered City on June 21, 1938 when President Manuel L. Quezon signed Commonwealth Act No. 338, a bill authored by Representative Justiniano S. Montano of Cavite.