The Visayas ( ), or the Visayan Islands (Visayan: Kabisay-an, ; ), are one of the three principal geographical divisions of the Philippines, along with Luzon and Mindanao. Located in the central part of the archipelago, it consists of several islands, primarily surrounding the Visayan Sea, although the Visayas are also considered the northeast extremity of the entire Sulu Sea. Its inhabitants are predominantly the Visayan peoples. The major islands of the Visayas are Panay, Negros, Cebu, Bohol, Leyte and Samar. The region may also include the provinces of Palawan, Romblon, and Masbate whose populations identify as Visayan and whose languages are more closely related to other Visayan languages than to the major languages of Luzon. There are three administrative regions in the Visayas: Western Visayas (pop. 7.9 million), Central Visayas (8 million) and Eastern Visayas (4.5 million). The Negros Island Region existed from 2015 to 2017, separating Negros Occidental and its capital Bacolod from Western Visayas and Negros Oriental from Central Visayas. The region has been dissolved since. Etymology The exact meaning of the name of the Visayas is unknown however the word itself derives from Sanskrit. The word "Bisaya" was first documented in Spanish sources in reference only to the non-Ati inhabitants of the island of Panay and possibly parts of Negros. The peoples they first encountered in Western Visayas were described by the Spanish as being "white people" and were not characterized as being tattooed, although inhabitants of Panay living in the mountainous regions did practice tattooing. In contrast, the Spaniards called the inhabitants of the other Visayan islands of Cebu, Bohol, and Leyte as the Pintados ("the painted ones") in reference to their practice of tattooing their entire bodies. Speculations From the 1950s to 1960s there were spurious claims by various authors that "Bisaya" is derived from "Sri Vijaya", arguing that the Visayans were either settlers from Sri Vijaya or were subjects of it. This claim is largely based only on the resemblance of the word Bisaya to Vijaya. But as the linguist Eugene Verstraelen pointed out, Vijaya would evolve into Bidaya or Biraya, not Bisaya, based on how other Sanskrit-derived loanwords become integrated into Philippine languages. The name has also been hypothesized to be related to the Bisaya ethnic group of Borneo, the latter incidentally recounted in the Maragtas epic as the alleged origins of the ancestral settlers in Panay. However historical, archeological, and linguistic