English/Spanish Christian Names

[fawlty]

Is anyone aware of a list or reference that compares and/or translates the equivalents of English christian names into Spanish or vice versa.?

I know that many names are very similar, but there are anomalies for example Christopher=Cristóbal.

[Pippa]

James = Jaime y Santiago

[fawlty]

Ok, I've found this site, which is very good for this type of research:

http://www.behindthename.com/nmc/spa.php

[gastephen]

There's also an interesting article about Spanish naming customs here. This gives a little more information, amongst lots of other things, about the 'Marías': the composite names such as María del Carmen, María del Pilar, María de la Luz, which lead to Carmen, Pilar, Luz...

[GabrielDeManila]

Wow. That article is very interesting. I always wondered why my grandma whose name was Rosario had a nickname of Charo (well, Charing, actually, but that's because of an old convention of adding -ing to nicknames in my country). Well, according to this, that's just the convention. Thanks for the link, Graham!

[Pippa]

Originally Posted by gastephen

There's also an interesting article about Spanish naming customs here. This gives a little more information, amongst lots of other things, about the 'Marías': the composite names such as María del Carmen, María del Pilar, María de la Luz, which lead to Carmen, Pilar, Luz...

Most of Maria Luz are called Mari Luz, not very often gets shortend to Luz. Also there are combinations with Maria: Maria Isabel gets shortened to Maribel or Mabel, Maria Luisa to Marisa

There are a few peculiarities to Spanish names.

• As you know Spanish women keep their surname, and this has happened since the Middle Ages, I think it comes from arab influence. Everybody has two surnames, traditionally, the first one from the father and second one from the mother. (the law changed a few years ago and you can put the mother’s one first these days).

It also used to be a tradition to call the first children (not everybody, of course) with the same Christian name than their parents. So, let’s say for example that you have a couple called:
Francisco Martínez Luján
Maria del Pilar López García
They would call their children:
Francisco Martínez López
Maria del Pilar Martínez López


To distinguish them from their father and mother they would use nicknames: For Francisco :Paco, Paquito, Quico or Chisco, For Pilar : Pilu, Piluchi or Mari Pili

• Another point is that the male names José (Joseph) and Jesús, are male on their own or if they have María afterwards, i.e. Jose María and Jesús María, but if the María comes before they are feminine: Maria Jesús, Maria José. These also have a lot of nicknames.

For José or Jose María: Pepe, Pepu, Chema, Jose Mari
For Jesús or Jesús María: Chus, Chusma,

• The suffix –ez is the equivalent to English –son

Martínez son of Martín,
Lopez: son of Lope
Rodriguez: son of Rodrigo
Domínguez: son of Domingo, and so on.
I am not totally sure, but I think this comes from the Visigoths, who occupied Spain after the Romans. (after the 5th century)

[Pippa]

Originally Posted by fawlty

I know that many names are very similar, but there are anomalies for example Christopher=Cristóbal.

Dawn= Aurora

[gastephen]

Originally Posted by Pippa

• The suffix –ez is the equivalent to English –son

I think the patronymic suffix -son is of Norse origin. Other patronymics common in 'British/Irish' surnames are the prefixes Mac/Mc (Gaelic origin) and Fitz (Norman).

[richardksa]

Originally Posted by Pippa

Most of Maria Luz are called Mari Luz, not very often gets shortend to Luz. Also there are combinations with Maria: Maria Isabel gets shortened to Maribel or Mabel, Maria Luisa to Marisa

Just to add to this: Maria Eugenia becomes Mariu, and Maria Teresa becomes Mayte. The last being very common.

Concepción becomes Concha, Consuelo is Chello.

[gastephen]

Since we are talking about hipocorísticos, here are a couple more (don't think they've mentioned so far):

Dolores -> Lola

Francisco -> Paco

Actually, here is a pretty comprehensive looking list: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hipocorístico#Ejemplos

[Kralizec]

Originally Posted by gastephen

Actually, here is a pretty comprehensive looking list: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hipocorístico#Ejemplos

Lucía Fernanda - Lucyfer

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucifer