Filipino parents wax poetic when choosing baby’s name

17/3/2018

Amber Webb Photography

NAMING BABY

FILIPINOS DON'T MERELY CHOOSE BABY NAMES, WE DESIGN THEM

Ah, the frustrations of finding that perfect baby name. Even before conception, parents debate the potential doom of names like "Richard" (oh, but then they'll call him Dick), "Lise" (no, no, no, it rhymes with sleaze) or "Penelope" (my ex-girlfriend's dog was Penelope) - this last one being a double whammy. For a name not only decides the identity and fate of an innocent baby, it demonstrates the creativity, originality and sophistication of his or her parents. My family could, single-handedly, win awards in all three of these categories. We Filipinos, you see, are masters of name poetry. We don't simply choose names for our children; we design them.

My first cousin Emily Jane, a.k.a. "EJ"

The thing is, Filipinos value alliteration. Read aloud and listen to the harmony of these offspring: Tasha, Tania and Tara; and Jonathan, James and Jaclyn. There is also an advanced variation to this theme, a kind of suffixing. Let me introduce you to my cousins Melissa and Melanie, or to another cousin’s trio of friends: Alvin, Bervin and Chervin (the latter is the only girl). Did you pick up on the clever A-B-C pattern? (Scroll down after reading this article to Comments to see what Chervin named and nicknamed her own kids. It’s pretty awesome.)

We're also a rhyme-loving people. Come to our next potluck and meet Bing, Ching, Lucing, Ping and Ging-Ging. The latter, originally named Guia, has been playfully abbreviated by poets to "Ging," and then duplicated - "Ging-Ging" - to create an affectionate diminutive.

My cousin Tina's son, Joseph O'Neil (his first and second names). We call him "Jojo"

In my family, your birth certificate may read Joseph, Maya and Patricia, but your kin will forever address you as "Jojo," "MiMi" and "Chi-Chi" - hyphenation, spacing and capitalisation are optional and purely esthetic. Pure novelty is the mirrored name. The only other Filipina at my high school was "Aidyl." That's her mom's name backwards - Lydia.

Cousin Edith reigns supreme as Name Poet Extraordinaire

I have a nephew baptized as Jaymie-Daniel. This, no doubt, was Filipino-ized to the short form of "JD." My cousin "EJ" is officially Emily Jane. But at the forefront of this "acronymania" is surely cousin Edith. She christened her kids as (stay with me now) Prianjoni, Janjenali, Ricjeareu, Aronjonel and Caljerell, a.k.a. "PJ," "JJ," "RJ," "AJ" and "CJ." Each invented name counts exactly nine letters to balance their nine-lettered family name, Villaflor. Cousin Edith reigns supreme as Name Poet Extraordinaire.

Ate Edith's kids (from left to right): JJ, RJ, AJ, PJ, (centre) CJ

Last, but not least, is the blended name, a sophisticated form of compounding. My aunt Josie and uncle Nilo named their daughter "Jonille." See what they did there? Josie + Nilo = Jonille. Then there's my third cousin Edward Albert. He goes by "Edal." As 99.99976 percent of Filipinos are Catholic, the Maria-blend (after the Virgin Mary) is ubiquitous: "Marites" = Maria + Teresa, "Marivi" = Maria + Victoria, and "Marilu" = Maria + Lucia. Most noteworthy, though, is the popular triple-blended name "Luzviminda." Usual derivatives are Luz, Lulu (duplication again), Vi, Minnie or Minda. Should you ever meet a Filipina with one of these names, ask her if her birthname is "Luzviminda." If yes, you'll know her parents named her after the main regions of the Philippines: Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

My aunt Josie and uncle Nilo named their daughter "Jonille." See what they did there? Josie + Nilo = Jonille

Perhaps that's why, secretly, I'm glad that my husband isn't Filipino. We hope to have our own children one day and, unfortunately, I'm not much of a name poet. I do like "Patrick" and "Patricia," but then our kids would suffer with concoctions like "Pat-Pat" (too confusing, a blend that acts as a duplication) or "Trickicia" (too tongue-twisty) or "PP" (imagine the ridicule). Hmmmm, maybe "Richard," "Lise" and "Penelope" aren't so bad after all.

*If you know of any other examples of name poetry, please do share in Comments below!

The article was originally published in the Toronto Star a very long time ago. I updated it for St-Patrick's Day, March 17, which is my Name Day.

About the Author

I'm a freelance writer and culture reporter living in Paris. You and I will get along if - like me - you enjoy fashion, travel, art and gastronomy.
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19 Comments

Chervin Ragonjan

16/3/2018 00:07:40

Hi! Tina thought I should add to your names’ list. My brothers and I, in alphabetical and age order are Alvin, Bervin, and me, Chervin.
My kids names are Zyrhus-Anthony: (Anthony is dad’s name); Zylan Detryx (-lan comes from paternal grandfather Magellan); Zydelle Alamea (-delle comes from maternal grandmother Delia).

Thanks for writing an interesting and relevant article!

Patricia Gajo link

16/3/2018 00:27:49

Chervin, I integrated your names into the last update of the article. Did you see? Thanks for sharing!

For your kids, so many questions! Do they have knicknames? I’m guessing you can’t call them all Z.A. I’d also be curious to know how you pronounce each name, but that might be hard to write out. Where did the idea come from? Did you intentionally want the first and last letters if the alphabet?

16/3/2018 05:33:05

Nicknames? But of course!
Zyrhus (Pronounced Zy-rus, like Cyrus) is nicknamed ZyZy.
Zylan (Pronounced Zy-lin) is Lan-Lan.
Zydelle (Pronounced Zy-dell) is Delli or Della, or she goes by her second name, Alamea.

16/3/2018 08:19:29

Chervin, I think you give my Ate Edith a run for her money as Name Poet Extraordinaire 🙌🏼

16/3/2018 08:36:41

I think an entirely separate (but related) article could be written about Filipinos’ fondness for naming their sons after great men in history. For example, I have two uncles whose names are Socrates and Dante. I went to high school with a guy (Filipino, of course) named Voltaire. And I just read above that Chervin’s grandfather’s name is Magellan? Anyone else have another example?

Adele

17/3/2018 01:00:28

I’m Filipino and my husband is French-Canadian. All our kids have names that have 5 letters and end in some form of “-ie:” Chloé, Louis, Marie and Henri. It starts to get difficult after two!

Patricia Gajo

17/3/2018 01:07:09

Love the cross-cultural naming! (My husband’s French-Canadian, too!) Thanks for sharing! 🇵🇭🇨🇦

Matilde Isabel Maddela

17/3/2018 01:34:40

Coming from a large (7 Girls 4 Boys) my parents did not run out of names... the eldest was the automatic Jr of my dad... and as our great grandparents were of Spanish background, the following brothers all had Jose before their name... Jose Amado, Jose Domingo and Jose Antonio, which also gave them their nickname, Amado was Dodie, Domingo was Igut or Ingo and well I can’t explain Antonio because he was called Banjo by the family !

All girls had Spanish names; we have our share of Maria too ... Maria Soledad, hence Marisol for short, Fe Esperanza named after an aunt but known by every one as Ola! There’s Angeles Rosario known by the family as Ditche which means 2nd daughter (actually spelt Ditse) then there’s Pilar Victoria named after our mom, Aurora Consuelo, nickname was Charming coz she did charm everyone, Teresita Imelda named after her god mother and I was named after the grandmothers, Matilde Isabel nicknamed BengBeng from Isabel... ah the Filipino names!

17/3/2018 01:56:30

Hi Tita, I didn’t know all this! How interesting!!!
Also, it makes sense that all the boys have Jose in their names, but they never blended them with their second names. Maybe it’s just easier to do that with Maria.... thanks for sharing!

Lissa

17/3/2018 01:37:01

Haha, my kids are Edward, Emile, Eloise and Estela, and though my husband is three generations Canadian, on his side his brother and him are Charles and Chris, and he has cousins Melody, Marina and Melissa. So the tradition is on both sides! Great article and happy name day!

17/3/2018 01:50:44

First of all, I totally forgot all your kids’ names started with the letter E. I remember now though when you were looking for Élodie! Second, that’s so cool that Charles’ family has poets in the family, too 😉 Thanks for sharing!

17/3/2018 01:52:54

Lissa, Would you happen to have an old photo of you and Mel when you were really little? I’d love to add it to the article? Or one of all your kids together when they were really young?

Justine Nolasco-Chiang

17/3/2018 13:17:02

My mother did a great job at choosing my first name: Justine

I’m proud to say that I was named after my maternal grandfather/Lolo, Justiniano.

But my 973 cousins, Titas, Tito’s, ninangs and ninongs decided, of course, that while “Justine” is nice, “Ting-Ting” is better. (And well, easier and much more fun to say.)

I’m 42 years old now. They still call me that.

Your blog post is amazing. Thank you for explaining my childhood and educating the world.

Justine “Ting-Ting” Nolasco

17/3/2018 13:33:49

I love it!

Ting-Ting, you should meet my cousin Ging-Ging. You have a lot in common.

17/3/2018 15:49:54

If Ting-Ting and Ging-Ging had kids....what would they be named?

Too complicated. Maybe if the baby is male, he’d just be called “Boy.”

Donna MacPherson

17/3/2018 15:04:39

Hi Patricia. One of the cleverest usage of name that I know is a family that named their son after all 4 grandparents. John and Kosh and Pat and Rick. His name is Josh Patrick. What a great tribute. Enjoyed the article

17/3/2018 17:20:51

Hi Donna, WOW! I’m impressed! What a great tribute! Maybe they had a bit of Filipino genes in there somewhere 😉 Really so clever!!! 👍🏼👍🏼

18/3/2018 12:07:02

Funny article also about Filipino names: http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/lifestyle/content/216499/senator-joker-pinoy-names-tickle-foreigners/story/

18/3/2018 12:09:56

One more for the road (by BBC writer Kate McGeown): http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/9435751.stm

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