''Maynilà'', the Filipino name for the city, comes from the phrase ''may-nilà'', meaning "where indigo is found". ''Nilà'' is derived from the Sanskrit word ''nīla'' (), which refers to indigo – and, by extension, to several plant species from which this natural dye can be extracted. The name ''Maynilà'' was probably bestowed because of the indigo-yielding plants that grow in the area surrounding the settlement, and not because it was known as a settlement that traded in indigo dye: Indigo-dye extraction became an important economic activity in the area only in the 18th century, several hundred years after the Maynila settlement was founded and named. The native Tagalog word for the indigo plant, ''tayum'' (and variants of that word) can be discerned in several toponyms in the Philippines: Tayuman Street (meaning "where the indigo plant is") in Manila, as well as Tayum, in Abra, and Tagum, in Davao del Norte.