We had an unexpected guest for dinner last night. (Friend of Carina).
Then wifey went into ‘wifey’ mode and said to me
‘do you remember her?’
Well I did as it happened, and said so.
Next question.. ‘what’s her name then?’
Now I do remember faces but I have problems with names.
Especially Philippine names
Let me apologise right now if may offend anybody. It’s not meant that way.
Just my observations on the idiosyncrasy of naming Philippine children.
I actually find the names very charming. (As well as amusing. Sorry!)
The first time I visited the Philippines the biggest problem I had was trying to remember the names of everyone I met. Mostly because I was hearing names I had never actually heard before, and also because everyone seemed to have a nick name.
I just couldn’t it figure out which name is real and which name is a nickname.
Seems not to matter too much, unless like me you have difficulty in matching the names to faces.
Whilst living in Japan we went to a concert where Jessa Zaragoza was starring. Her husband was also with her. His name I recall was Ding Dong.
During my visits to the Philippines I came across hundreds of names in a similar theme.
One of my bro-in-laws is called Ram-Ram.
Names of other people I have met (not in the family) include Put-Put, Jun-Jun, Bam-Bam, Jing-Jing and Bing-Bong.
Even the current president has not escaped. Previously known as Noy-Noy he is now beginning to be known affectionately as
P-Noy.
There are lots of other interesting themes that can be used.
In the case of my wife’s family. All the sibling boys have names beginning with the letter ‘R’ and all the sibling girls have names beginning with ‘C’ (my wife is Carlina her sisters are Cherry and Charito)
Charito has two daughters, Cherry Pie and Honey Pie (food themes), her son is called Jan-Jan.
(apparently Cherry Pie is named after the sister Cherry but with pie added so we know who is who??)
Her brother Rick has three sons, Dhave (Dave), Bhoy (Boy) and Jhun (Jun). Not sure what the theme is other than the ‘H’ theme.
(Bhoy is named after the mother’s brother who is called Boy – sounds the same to me anyway regardless of the spelling.)
Uncle Boy is actually older than me (believe it or not) I feel really uncomfortable calling him Boy so I’ve adopted Philippine style and call him Manang Boy. Sounds better to me anyway, plus I then know exactly who I am talking about.
I understand his birth name is Primitivo.
The theme I find most charming is the one where the child has a mixture of each parent’s name.
Friends of ours (Graham and Cecile) named their baby girl Gracel. I like that a lot!!
There are more, but probably everyone is getting bored now and wondering what’s the point of this post.
As for me, everyone just calls me kuya. I’m almost the oldest family member anyway.
Incidently, the idea of a naming theme is also often used in Japan.
Taro - 1st born son
Jiro - 2nd born son
Saburo, Shiro and Goro etc (3rd 4th and 5th sons respectively)
Hopefully there are some ideas for any members who have a baby on the way.
…….Anyway, the name of the lady who came for dinner last night was Jen-Jen.
I knew it was a double-barrel one...just forgot which one.
what a funny post Terpe! but you basically grasp the naming 'scheme' here in the Philippines...I myself has a combined names of my parents (Rayna = Raymundo + Carina)...my sister though has a nickname of Leng-Leng (real name Marinelle) my other bro is the junior of my dad and the youngest was just not in any category...although my family doesn't follow one naming category, we definitely use all those things you said... 
but I remember, my sis' classmate and that girl's siblings has the name Jollibee, Wendy (from Wendy's fastfood) and another fastfood name I forgot! 
Originally Posted by raynaputi
