Before it was renamed Quirino, the town was Angaki. Local folklore suggests the name didn’t just appear out of nowhere; it is tied to an old upland word roughly translating to “the place where people or paths meet.” Because of its location on the western slopes of the Cordillera, it served as a vital, secretive trading crossroads where the coastal Ilocanos and the upland indigenous tribes (like the Igorots and Tingguians) bartered salt, tobacco, and upland rice.