Little was known about the origins of Barangay Ma-ao. Old folks and natives explained the story of a Spaniard who reached the area and asked a woman, obviously the mother of a crying child, what the name of the place was. The child crying, shouted “mahaw, mahaw” (“I want breakfast”). The Spaniard thought the place was “Mahaw” (later Ma-ao).

Still another tale said that, people from the mountain coming down usually ate their breakfast at this particular point, thus the word “mahao” meant the point where they got hungry and ate breakfast.