What’s in a name?

Government agencies must keep themselves in the public eye to justify their existence to taxpayers. The National Census and Statistics Office (NCSO) comes to mind when one needs a certified record of birth, marriage, or death, but it does much more for the trivia-hungry—total population of the Philippines and more detailed information: gender, age, how many are studying in the primary, secondary, tertiary, postgraduate levels, dropout and completion figures, as well as age and gender distribution of the employed, unemployed, and underemployed, together with types and places of work. At the start of the year, the NCSO can make us smile with data on the longest, shortest, and most unusual passwords of the past year, together with baptismal names.

A recent conversation over dinner moved toward the vanishing Spanish names of previous generations that people of a certain age recall from movie stars like: Susan Roces, Fernando Poe Jr., Luis Gonzalez, Gloria Romero, and Pancho Magalona. Some names were funny because they referred to physical attributes, like Doro de los Ojos who had big eyes, and the iconic female kontrabida Bella Flores, who didn’t reference “beautiful flowers” onscreen.

And why is it that comedians had only one name—Dolphy, Panchito, Pugo, Tugo, Bentot, Tange, Balot, Babalu, Lupito, and Chiquito? The same for comediennes—Patsy, Chuchi, Chichay, and Aruray?

All this came to mind when I browsed through “A List of Philippine Baptismal Names,” published in 1915 in Manila by the Bureau of Printing. In 1905, the Bureau of Education published a list of baptismal names drawn from the Catholic calendar and the Roman Martyrologies that provide countless names of obscure Christian saints and martyrs by date. All these added to tax and cedula lists, etc.

A certain E.E. Schneider, who was both a teacher at the Bureau of Education and a wood expert at the Bureau of Forestry, used his taxonomic discipline to classify baptismal names, enlarging the 1905 list of 1,100 names to 2,700 a decade later. This did not take into consideration names that have two forms, masculine and feminine, like Mario and Maria, Lucia and Lucio, Emilio and Emilia. Pioquinto being a reference to Pope Pius V should be imposed on boys, yet it has an absurd feminine form in Pioquinta. Escolastica may be the twin sister of St. Benedict, but her gender does not stop the devout from naming their son Escolastico.

In the same vein, Teresa, a feminine name, can be made masculine as Tereso. Some names are duplicates and listed twice because of spelling, like Bibiano and Viviano. Some are listed twice because a letter has been dropped off, as in Hadrian and Helena that become Adrian and Elena. Some names cannot be changed by simply changing “o” for “a,” so Enrique becomes Enriqueta.

Many “titas” of Manila have Spanish names that are drawn from church feasts or titles of the Virgin Mary: Anunciacion or Anunciada, Aparicion (which can be made masculine as Aparicio), Angustia, Belen, Concepcion, Consolacion, Dedicacion, Encarnacion, Epifania (which can be made masculine as Epifanio), Espectacion, Expectacion, Exaltacion, Guadalupe, Loreto, Lourdes, Natividad, Nieves, Paz, Pentecostes, Purificacion, Presentation, Resurreccion, Salvacion, Transfiguracion, and Visitacion.

It makes you wonder about old teleseryes like: “Fe, Esperanza, at Caridad” (Faith Hope and Charity), and a recent one drawn from Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina” and broken up into “Anna, Karen at Nina.”

Some names refer to the dedication of ancient churches as in Basilica for women and Basilico for men. Philosophers were the preserve of boys: Aristofanes, Aristotales, Esapo, Erasmo, Euclides, Epictetus, as well as names that reference God (Deus or Deo): Deodato/Diosdado (God-given), Deusdedit, and Deogracias (Thanks be to God). Some are quite odd: Gemelo (twin), Habacuc, Corinto, Homobono, Hospicio, Leopardo, Lotario, and even Polio.

One would think the names of the Three Kings—Gaspar, Melchor and Baltazar—would be exclusive to men, but if you remember the heroine Melchora Aquino (or Tandang Sora), then Gaspara, Baltazara and Gabriela are possible. Jesus can be Jesusa (as in Susan Roces), and Jose can be Josefa or Josefina. All these are remnants of the shared history between the Philippines and Spain.

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