bout seven kilometers east of the national road in Poblacion, Narvacan, is the Municipality of Nagbukel, Ilocos Sur . The town comprising of twelve (12) barangays is accessible by four wheels vehicle, tricycle and other forms of land transportation. From the midst of times long past, there are three versions that account on how the municipality got its name.

One legendary story tells about the existence of a high mountain somewhere in the eastern part of the town that could be seen from a great distance which was round that it appeared like the top of a hat when the people saw this, they exclaimed, “NAGBUKEL”, meaning round.

Some old folks related that because of the presence of three small round hills meting midst the rice fields at the southern part of the town which could be seen already when one is at the heart of the poblacion, the town was given the name ”NAGBUKEL”.

The third version has a political undertone according to the story, the four original barrios, Mission, Bandril, Poblacion East and Sarmingan that constituted the town appeared  to be the scattered because between them were some barrios of Narvacan, now Pob. West, Balaweg, Mapisi and Taleb. One older man of the village uttered in the Iloco dialect, “NAWARA, MASAPUL A BUKLEN”, MEANING THEY ARE SCATTERED AND SHOULD BE UNITED. Probably, the elder village leaders negotiated with the leaders of Narvacan, (Nagbukel then was part of Narvacan) so that all the places east of the Cayapa River were constituted as one area, after the successful negotiations, the people exclaimed “NAGBUKEL”.

From these incidents and the word “NAGBUKEL”, the people since then up to the present called the aggregated area, which later became a regular municipality, NAGBUKEL.

The barrios, which compose the municipality today, were formerly an integral part of the municipality of Narvacan. In the year 1896, Nagbukel became a township under the Spanish government. It was only in 1899 when the town became a regular municipality.