What were the Philippine Islands called before they were called the Philippine Islands?
I don’t think there was any political unity to the archipelago until the Spaniards came, so I doubt they had a name as a group. I don’t recall hearing any other than something vague like the East Indies, but that would have had meaning only to Westerners anyway. Certain islands may have been under some sultan at one time or another, but the Philippines as we know them today? Don’t think so.
According to Wiki, there’s been several names, not all referring to the exact same islands.
Didn’t the Sultanate of Sulu (no Star Trek jokes, please!) - founded in the early 1400s, well before the Spanish showed up - include part of the modern-day Philippines as well?
Part, yes, but not all of the present-day Philippines. So you couldn’t say that the Philippines used to be the Sultanate of Sulu.