Philippines: A land of fanciful monikers

Nury Vittachi

The Jakarta Post (Indonesia)

The people of the Philippines “have the most creative names on the planet,” said Nury Vittachi. Whenever I visit Manila, I love asking people what their kids are called, and hearing, “Oh, meet Tingting, Popo, Testament, Peachy, Boris, Mary-Concepcion, and Dugong.”

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Filipinos’ names fit into several broad categories. There are the “doorbell names,” like Bing, Bong, Pingping, etc. In a new trend, “some of the Bing-Bings have renamed themselves Bing2 or Bing Squared to sound more sophisticated.” And there are the traditional Catholic names, which are now often abbreviated. Maria-Concepcion is commonly cut down to “Mari-Con, which sounds like a U.S. multinational.” One politician is named Jejomar, “a name made up of the first few letters of Jesus, Joseph, and Mary.” And these are just the first names.

Most Filipinos have multiple names that borrow freely from other cultures. The new president is Benigno Simeon Noynoy Cojuangco Aquino III; the parts of his name “are, in order, Spanish, Hebrew, Filipino, Chinese, Italian, and American.” No wonder he won the election: You can’t get more Filipino than that.