27 11 2009

I´ve already mentioned that in the Basque Country, Navarra and Basque French Country (complicated, uh!) there are three languages spoken, Spanish, French and Basque (by number of speakers). And that many official signs are written in both languages (Basque and Spanish or Basque and French). Now I´ll deal with people´s names…

Traditional names in the Basque Country were very common in the past: Jesús, María, José, Antonio, Francisco, Ángel, Ángeles, Piedad, …Yes, many people are called Jesus in Spain (without any religious connotation)!! And what´s more, they are called in many cases Jesús María (for a man) or María Jesús (for a woman). Or José María (man) or María José (woman). The custom was to put the name of the saint of the day to the newborn, or a biblical name. By the way, those called José are called Pepe (coming from P.P., short for Padre Putativo, a father that really isn´t), those called Jesus Maria are called Chusma or Jesusmari…Spanish names have a lot of “diminutive” alternatives.

In the 80´s there was a strong current in favour of “Basque” names, based on Basque mithology or nature. Hence, we got many “Aitor” (father of the Basques), “Amaia” (the mother”, Garikoitz, Aritz (oak), Harri (stone), Eder (pretty), Garazi (special), Gorka (translation for George), Ibai (river), Odei (cloud), Ainara (sparrow), ( Oihane (scream), Irati (a virgin and a forest),…These names have nothing to do with Spanish ones and are a clear sign of the origin (and some times, of the political views) of the person.

As every action produces a counter-reaction, in the past few years there´s again a return to the “old” and “classic” names, like Pablo (Paul), Lucía, Ana, María, Jorge, Paula,…








One response

5 02 2010


But Txoko’s legend is a myth, it is plenty of grandmams…
What a whopper!

Un abrazo

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