You thought "Shiloh" and "Nevaeh" were kree8tive baby names? Ha! Or as they'd say in Venezuela, ¡Ja! ¡Ja! ¡Ja!
According to this report in today's New York Times Week in Review, "bestowing bizarre names on newborns has become a whimsically colorful tradition" in the land of the Bolivarian Revolution.
A glance through a phone book or the government’s voter registry reveals names like Taj-Mahal Sánchez, Elvis Presley Gomez Morillo, Darwin Lenin Jimenez, even Hitler Eufemio Mayora. Other Venezuelan first names, which roll off the tongue about as easily in Spanish as in English, include Yusmairobis, Nefertitis, Yaxilany, Riubalkis, Debraska, as well as Yesaidú and Juan Jondre — transliterations of “Yes, I do” and “One hundred.”
Reporter Simon Romero notes that other Latin American countries also engage in offbeat baby-naming practices--Washington, Robson, and Wellington are popular in Brazil (try saying those names with a Portuguese inflection), and at least one Honduran baby has been named Bujía (Spark Plug). I once met a young Cuban man whose nametag read "Noisex"; he told me quite cheerfully that his mother had been aiming for "Moisés" (Spanish for Moses), "but she didn't know how to spell it." He seemed to exhibit remarkable emotional stability, considering.
But Venezuela's left-wing politics and history of social stratification have yielded what Romero calls an "extremely robust" interest in "unusual names." There's a congresswoman named Iroshima (Hiroshima) Bravo, an Elvis in President Hugo Chávez's cabinet, and a Mao Breznyer Pino Delgado working in advertising. "Breznyer" was an attempt at transliterating former Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev's surname.
The most poignant account in the story is that of Gilberto Vargas, a shanty-dweller who named his four daughters Yusmary Shuain, Yusmery Sailing, Yusneidi Alicia, and Yureimi Klaymar and his two sons Kleiderman Jesús and Kleiderson Klarth. Most of the names, Mr. Vargas said, "just came to me in my dreams." And he added, "Their names will make them special in this life."
No they won't. Their accomplishments will make them special in this life. John Adams: generic name. John Adams the president and the composer: brilliant men.
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