Seen it all, done it all, can't remember most of it.

Is there a story behind your name?

Posted: February 15th, 2007 | Author: PJ | Filed under: Personal | Tags: , | 7 Comments »

Have you ever asked your parents the story behind your name? Do you think your name is weird?

The idea of this post came about thanks to a comment made by a colleague, Ganns, on one of my previous posts. I also recall a previous BBC Article about “The Philippine Name Game”. This was also discussed during Conne’s surprise birthday party.

I know some people who ‘hated’ their parents for giving them ‘awful’ names. I, for one, didn’t like having two names (Philip John – which I was told was derived from my father’s name, Phil) and would always shorten it out to PJ when I was younger, probably because it took up an entire school pad paper width to write my name in full (I had big handwriting then, and I think I still do).

Here are some of the interesting ‘name’ anecdotes I’ve encountered through the years:

1. One of the most colorful names I’ve encountered belonged to a classmate of mine, Roygibv. Yes, he’s got the spectral colors of the rainbow (ROYGBIV: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet).

2. My brother’s children have nicknames pertaining to colors: Purple and Indigo.

3. One of my best friends was really dead set and serious on naming his son ‘Dragonlord’. He was a big guy, so we didn’t think it was funny at all.

4. A schoolmate had a dad whose name was Florendo, and so he named his son “Odnerolf” – Florendo spelled backwards.

5. A former officemate was born on December 30, Rizal Day. He was named Joeriz, based on Jose Rizal, the national hero of the Philippines.

6. The first name of current mayor of Makati City in the Philippines, Jejomar Binay, is composed of the first few letters of Jesus, Joseph and Mary.

There are a lot more. Perhaps you have some names you’d like to share? Feel free to add to the list.

Cheers!

Popularity: 1% [?]

No related posts.

7 Comments on “Is there a story behind your name?”

  1. 1 Chrissy121875 said at 3:29 am on February 15th, 2007:

    Interesting post, Sharkey! You know, my youngest brother’s name is also PJ (Peter, after my grandfather, Pedro and Julian, after my Dad’s middle name). I think filipino nicknames are really interesting. My name’s Christine, but everyone in the family calls me Tin-Tin or Tina. Where on earth did those come from? They aren’t even remotely similar to Christine! Oh, and btw, I was almost named Christmas because I was born a week before Christmas…and my middle name is Grace. My last name’s Chinese character means ‘tree’ in English, so I would have been Christmas Grace Tree. Crazy!

  2. 2 sharkey said at 5:12 am on February 15th, 2007:

    LOL! Now that name would have made it to the top of my name list! Ha! Thanks Chrissy!

    Btw, do you know that Conne, whose real name is Maryconne, was born on the 8th of December, the feast of the Immaculate Conception? Hence her name was derived from ‘Maria Concepcion’. Hmmm, come to think of it, I should have added it to my list………

  3. 3 Dzen said at 5:18 am on February 15th, 2007:

    that was a really interesting story of your name, chrissy! who would have thought that you were almost named Christmas!
    Thanks goodness, my parents had a change of heart when they were thinking of a meaningful name for me. PJ, as I remember, mentioned it already from one of his posts, that my name was supposed to be “Maria Concepcion” because I was born on the feast day of Immaculate Concepcion…
    My brother, was named after my 2 granfathers (who died the same year he was born) So, Santiago + Pedro= James Peter. It was very considerate of them to translate it to English, otherwise….I can’t imagine how life would have been for my poor bro..
    interesting post, peej…

  4. 4 Ms. Mamma said at 4:04 pm on February 15th, 2007:

    Thanks for stopping by my little glob on the web! You have a beautiful family! You have lots of interesting info here! I named my son True Griffin Thompson $*#&@&(my last name). When I found “True” it immediately spoke to me and I knew it would be his first name because when I became pregnant I did truley love his father and this was pure. Griffin was always just a cool name I liked, maybe because of Griffin Dunne the actor? Thompson is the ‘maiden’ name of my grandmother and also the last name of the writer Hunter S. I thought it was a pretty kick ass combo.

    I gave him my last name since I left his father when I was three months preggo(never married). I have not heard from him in almost two years. My son and I will always have the same last name, even if I do get married because this is WHO I am, who I have been and who I will always be. If I were 20, I would take his name if I got married, but nnow I’m just me, FOREVER. Sorry for the novella. ;)

    Very interesting, guys!

  5. 5 sharkey said at 12:49 am on February 16th, 2007:

    Thanks for the comment Ms. Mamma! Wow, that’s very interesting!

    I like the name Griffin too. It was a a favorite character name (Griffin/Gryphon) I used when I was addicted to the Dungeons and Dragons RPG years ago. :)

  6. 6 curiositykiller said at 9:48 am on February 16th, 2007:

    That’s really interesting. My dad was working in Italy and Germany when he came across a very popular name. When my mother was pregnant with me, he decided to name his first child after the initials of his own mother which is Hue Wah Yeun. My mother wanted to name me Henrietta (I know)… but my dad had better taste and named me Heidi instead. Hence my younger sister had the initial “W”. Very cool post indeed.

  7. 7 sharkey said at 10:19 am on February 16th, 2007:

    Thanks for the comment curiosity! :)

Leave a Reply