{"id":1611,"date":"2010-03-27T08:42:34","date_gmt":"2010-03-27T15:42:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimatli.org\/blog\/?p=1611"},"modified":"2010-03-27T19:03:28","modified_gmt":"2010-03-28T02:03:28","slug":"mexican-names","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chimatli.org\/blog\/?p=1611","title":{"rendered":"Mexican Names"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was thinking about a friend I had in elementary school named Eduviges. She was from Tijuana. Eduviges means “fighting woman.” We called her “Dube” (in Spanish) for short.
\n<\/em>
\nCopied over from a Myspace blog post from 2007:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"aztec_idealized2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In a life long ago, I worked in a bank and tried to find numerous ways to entertain and guard myself against the tedium of “Next customer, please!” One way was to collect interesting names in Spanish.
\nHere are a few:<\/p>\n

Atendoro Coyotl
\nEmeterio
\nAustreberto
\nFructuoso
\nPastora
\nClorindo
\nWenceslao
\nFidencia Matlacuatzi
\nGumercindo
\nAgapito<\/p>\n

Perhaps these names were popular two centuries ago and managed to survive in sheltered pueblitos or they’re names of unpopular saints, quien sabe? They’re immensely preferable over the much too popular “Juan” and “Jose.”<\/p>\n

Speaking of which, I’ve been trying to figure out for years which nicknames go with which proper names. So far I’ve got:<\/p>\n

Juan=Paco
\nJose=Pepe
\nEnrique=Kike or Kiki
\nSocorro=Coco
\nLuis=Lucho
\nLourdes=Lulu
\nGuillermo=Memo<\/p>\n

Can’t think of any others at the moment. Anyone else?<\/p>\n

——————————————————–
\nFrances had these to add:
\nnicknames…in my family<\/strong>
\nluis…huicho
\nsergio…checo
\nfrances\/francisca…pancha\/pachita
\ngustavo…tabo
\nveronica…bero<\/p>\n

weird names<\/strong>
\nHermila….(people call her Milly for short, weird). my mom
\nAvigail…(Avi for short) my grandmother”<\/p>\n

Thanks Frances!<\/p>\n

———————–<\/p>\n

I wrote this in 2007 and had hoped to come up with a definitive list which sorta got pushed to the backburner. If you know anymore, please leave your submissions in the comments section and I will try and compile them all for one post. Thanks!<\/p>\n

———————<\/p>\n

Forgot to add this in from my follow-up post. Ask A Mexican<\/a> covered this question too!<\/p>\n

Dear Mexican:
\nHow do Mexicans get such ridiculous nicknames from seemingly normal names? For instance, Jose becomes Chepe, Eduardo is Lalo, Gabriel becomes Gabi, and Guillermo devolves into Memo.
\nIt’s Marcela, Not Chela<\/p>\n

I want to know why Mexicans have such incongruous nicknames. In English, people have nicknames that have some relation to their given names\u00e2\u20ac\u201dfor example Kenny is the nickname for Kenneth, or Jenny for Jennifer. Granted, there are some nicknames that seem like a stretch of logic, like Jack for John and Peg for Margaret, but there are none so incompatible as Pepe for Jos.., Pancho for Francisco, or Chucho (or Chuy) for Jesus. I have asked many Mexicans about this and they all tell me, “Porque as.. es,” so I finally decided to ask THE Mexican.
\nLa China Curiosa Who’s Really Korean<\/p>\n

Dear Wabette and Chinita:
\nThe definitive study on this quirk remains Viola Waterhouse’s “Mexican Spanish Nicknames,” included in the 1981 anthology Linguistics Across Continents: Studies in Honor of Richard S. Pittman. Unfortunately, the ethnolinguist devotes most of her article to including as many seemingly wacky Mexican apodos as possible (some of the better ones mentioned are Goyo for Gregorio, Licha for Alicia, Nacho for Ignacio, and Cuco for Refugio) instead of theorizing why Mexican Spanish is prone to such a mangled morphology. Waterhouse does identify one phenomenon that factors into many of these name changes: palatalization, when speakers pronounce non-palatal consonants as palatals\u00e2\u20ac\u201dfor example, the transformation of s into a ch sound when Salvador becomes Chava. Other phonetical laws not mentioned by Waterhouse that influence Mexican Spanish nicknames include apocopation (the dropping of a word’s last letters or syllables\u00e2\u20ac\u201dCaro for Carolina), apheresis (when a word loses syllables or letters at its beginning\u00e2\u20ac\u201dMando for Armando) and syncopation, when a word contracts by shedding sounds\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthat’s how Roberto becomes Beto.<\/p>\n

But the question remains: Why the dropping of sounds and letters in Mexican Spanish nicknames? This Mexican’s take: most nicknames derived from proper nombres are shortened versions of the original. Mexicans advance this process by employing the above-mentioned tricks. Such trends occur in languages that are evolving into newer, bolder tongues. So enjoy your pussy Billys from William and Cathys from Catherine, gabachos: Mexicans will take the linguistic wonder that is creating Lencho from Lorenzo any day.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was thinking about a friend I had in elementary school named Eduviges. She was from Tijuana. Eduviges means “fighting woman.” We called her “Dube” (in Spanish) for short. Copied over from a Myspace blog post from 2007: In a life long ago, I worked in a bank and tried to find numerous ways to … Continue reading Mexican Names<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimatli.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1611"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimatli.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimatli.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimatli.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimatli.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1611"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/chimatli.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1618,"href":"https:\/\/chimatli.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1611\/revisions\/1618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimatli.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimatli.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimatli.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}