Nicknames for the boys
If Paco and Curro seem remote from Francisco, what can we say about Pepe – the nickname for José? José (Joseph) was, of course, the surrogate father of Jesus, so one explanation is that Pepe is an abbreviation of the Latin Pater Putativus (Putative Father) - PP. Another possibility is that the nickname drifted over to Spain from Italy, where Pepe is the diminutive of Giuseppe (the Italian for José). Once again, though, the derivation is probably down to childish garbling. The consonants f, j and r are among the consonants that Spanish children take the longest to master, so a toddling José (or Josefa) might only manage the roughest of approximations with Pepe (or Pepa).
The derivation of other pet names is clear enough. There are no prizes for figuring out that Rafa is short for Rafael, Edu for Eduardo, Javi for Javier, or Ale for Alejandro. You still need to make a linguistic leap though, to get from Ramón to Moncho, Ignacio to Nacho, Manuel to Manolo, and – one that I’ve only just figured after nearly two decades – Chus for Jesús.
As for the short versions of double-barrelled names, these are usually formed by the first name in its entirety, plus a snippet from the second. Juanjo starts life as Juan José, Luisma as Luis Maria, Juanma as Juan Maria or Juan Manuel, Juanca as Juan Carlos (mm, King Juanca), and so on. Chema, less obviously, comes from José Maria. While former Prime Minister José-María Aznár was never a Chema, he was – and still is – referred to in jokes and satirical commentaries as Josemari.
Finally, there are the cutifying diminutives, of which the Spanish are so fond. True, it’s almost impossible to call an angelic little kid by its unadorned name, but when Arturito grows up, he will still be Arturito to those who love him. The same goes for Miguelín, Pablito, Manolito, Ramoncín, Antoñito, and all the other -citos, -itos.-cins and -lins.
Tags: Humour, Spanish language, Spanish life
February 26th, 2010 at 3:11 pm
It´s nice to see how Juan-Carlos has evolved to Juanca. I used a term in the middle…”juancar”…which could be translated as “Juan-Coche” :d
There r also diminutives of nicknames: Paquirrín, Francisquín, Javilín, Paquito, Pepito and “Andreita eat the chicken”
March 3rd, 2010 at 3:47 pm
Mi brother Fernando answers to Fer, Fernan, Fernandito and also Nando. However my cousin Fernando is just called “Chuchi”. Both are older than 35. Also, there is some special apellatives for brothers only. My husband is Valencian, and in Valencia brothers are also known as “Tete”. So much so that his nephew calls him “El tío Tete” (”Uncle Tete”) although he’s a “Tete” himself.
My grandmother has always referred to my brother as “Tate”.
My mother -Luisa- is known as “Luisi” inside her own family, but almost everyone else call her “Marisa” (short for “Maria Luisa”), even if it is not her name, just because long ago some fellow worked thought it was prettier than just Luisa.
And finally, mi husband just hates nicknames and diminutives, so we’ve called our daughter Irene because it simply hasn’t any (we thought it over carefully). Despite it all, she’s often called “Irenita”, even if it sounds just wrong.
March 4th, 2010 at 10:13 am
Mm, how about rené – a commn girl’s name I seem to remember in Catalunya, or God forbid, Ira …
Interesting about the tetes and tatas. My husband’s twin brothers were always referred toas ‘los tato’. Inhis family they have a whole bunch of ‘chuchi’ type names: cuca, pucho, chico etc. Btw, your English is superb. Have you lived in an English-speaking country?
March 19th, 2010 at 11:55 am
I love the name “Tete” for a brother, unfortunately the feminine is “Teta”, which people find (unsurprisingly) very amusing!