Comment from Christian
Time: November 9, 2006, 5:30 pm

On the subject of (extremely) religious first names, I’d like to start a NFS list of Maria derivatives - as these are always the ones that make foreigners think “What kind of name is that?” The answer is always “Must be some virgin.” It reminds me of the many incarnations of the Buddha one sees in Thailand.

To start you off I’ll offer my wife’s grandmother, who was called Purificacion and a girl in her twenties I met this week called Auxiliadora. I’ve also discovered that a large proportion of the women in Coin, Malaga are called Fuensanta (Holy Well) after the virgin who appeared to a local goatherd (as is traditional) in the fifteenth century. Pilar is so common that we tend to forget that these women are named after a virgin on a stick.

Comment from ben
Time: November 10, 2006, 10:55 am

Great list Christian. I’m always surprised by the name ‘Dolores’ (Pains!), much nicer when usually shortened to Lola.

Comment from Christian
Time: November 12, 2006, 11:07 am

On a related theme, I discovered yesterday that since 2002 the Alcaldesa Perpetua (Lady Mayor in Perpetuity) of Fuengirola has been none other than she who is referred to by Father Ted as “herself”.
The only similar case I can think of is that of Kim Il-sung, the Eternal President of North Korea. He died in 1994.
Spain is a strange country.

Comment from gargi
Time: November 23, 2007, 12:57 pm

Hoy en día, hay muchos nombres que no tienen sentido. Antes, una familia prefería poner el nombre de los abuelos o de los bísabuelos. Pero hoy en día esta costumbre ha cambiado mucha. Hay quienes ponen los nombres que estan de moda y tienen significados muy raros.