Nicknames

Friends photo by luiswalk

Did you ever wonder how Chino Ríos was related to tennis star Marcelo Ríos?  Or what parents were thinking when they named their daughters Kena or Mane?   Actually, Chile produced only one tennis-playing Ríos, and Kena and Mane’s parents gave their girls quite traditional names (María Eugenia and María Elena, respectively).  Chileans like to give people nicknames.

Nicknames based on a person’s given name, for the most part, have one of three origins, which I’ll call “Shortened”, “Younger sibling”, and “Imported”.

1) Shortened: These nicknames are easy to connect to their full-form counterpart, since they’re usually just the first one or two syllables of the name. They may sound confusing at first to foreign ears, since male nicknames can end in “a” and female nicknames in “o”.  Examples: Fran, Manu, Pau, Rafa, Seba.  In the case of compound names such as Juan José or Carmen Luz, the shortened form will usually be made up of the first syllable of each component name, producing Juanjo and Calú, respectively.

2) Younger sibling: These nicknames sound vaguely like the original, though they never have more than two syllables, and they simplify complex sounds, in much the way a child learning to talk might pronounce her older sibling’s name.  For example:

Jorge -> Coke :  /x/ (written as “j” and “g”) is replaced by the easier-to-pronounce /k/, and the adjacent /r/ is removed
Gloria -> Lola : /g/ is removed from the first consonant cluster, /r/ is replaced by the easier /l/ and the diphthong /ia/ is reduced to /a/

3) Imported: These are Anglo-sounding nicknames, like Paty and Naty

Here is a list of common name-based nicknames.  As  you’ll see, several have both shortened and younger-sibling forms.

Then, of course, there are the nicknames that come not from a person’s given name, but rather from a physical characteristic of theirs.  The most common of these are: Chascón (needs a haircut), Chico (short), Chino (Asian-looking), Flaco (skinny), Gordo (fat), Guatón (fat), Pelado (bald) and Negro (dark). These are generally pejorative terms, but always used con cariño.  The nicknames are often assigned by peers in primary or secondary school and can never be shaken.  They stick so fast to their owners that they can often be spotted in mainstream media, followed by a surname, as though they were official.