Bay () (), officially the Municipality of Bay (), is a 2nd class municipality in the province of Laguna, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 67,182 people. It is situated from Santa Cruz and southeast of Manila. It is also located at the east of Los Baños, west of Calauan, northeast of Santo Tomas and northwest of Alaminos. The Patron of Bay is Saint Augustine of Hippo celebrating his Feast Day during August 28. Laguna de Bay, the country's largest freshwater lake, is named after the town. Etymology In the old Tagalog language the name Bay derives from the same phonetic roots as "baybay" (shore) and as "babae" (woman) and "babaylan" (priestess). The name can thus be thought of either as a reference to the shore of the lake, or to a great lady. In the case of the latter, it has been suggested that the great lady might be the same as Maria Makiling, as her mountain was within the scope of Bay's original territory. History Just like the rest of the archipelago, the town of Bay has no record before the coming of Spaniards in the 18th century. Bay existed long before the coming of Spaniards. The Chinese must have come to the lakeshore towns to trade as early as the 9th century. The earliest account of Bay appeared in the conquest of island of Luzon published in April 20, 1572. It was described a great lake of fresh water, 12 league wide and very deep. The villages around the lake had about 25,000 inhabitants when Captain Juan de Salcedo arrived in the area. Bay is one of the oldest towns in Laguna province, and was the province's first capital. Its original territory covered the areas that are now known as Los Baños, Calauan, Alaminos and San Pablo (in addition to its current territory). The Spaniards pronounced the name of the town "Bah-ee" while the natives called it "Bah-eh." Either way, the similarity in spelling has led to the misconception that the town was named after Laguna de Bay. Instead, the Spaniards named the lake after this ancient Tagalog community. The "official" recorded history of Bay, may be gleaned from Gaspar de San Agustin's Conquestas de las Islas Filipinas of 1963 and Fr. Joaquin Martines de Zuniga's status of the Philippine Islands in 1800. Miguel Lopez de Legaspi, after establishing the city of