Why are Jesus and Adolfo common Hispanic names?

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LonelyJar
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26 Oct 2015, 10:04 pm

I'm just curious about why Jesús and Adolfo are relatively common names for males in Hispanic communities.



kamiyu910
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27 Oct 2015, 2:23 am

I don't know about Adolfo, but I'm fairly certain Jesus has to do with the strong Catholic influence.


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naturalplastic
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27 Oct 2015, 5:16 am

The most common first name in the World is "Mohammed". The most common family name is "Wong".Though I doubt that there are many guys on the planet named "Mohammed Wong"(or "Wong Mohammed"-since the family name comes first in the Far East).

But I digress.

In the Islamic world its acceptable to honor the Prophet by naming your kid after him.

Likewise in the Spanish speaking world they honor Jesus the same way.

But in the English Speaking world naming your kid "Jesus" is considered blasphemy. England, and its former colonies, are just as Christian as Spain and its former colonies (even though the Anglo world is mostly Protestant, and the Hispanic World is almost totally Catholic). The difference is cultural rather than religious.

On the other hand "Christ" does crop up in the Anglophone world in both boy, and in girl, names (Christopher, Christina, Christiana). Sometimes in both of a person's names (Chris Christopherson). Go figure.

After the second world war its rare for an English speaking couple to name their son "Adolf" for obvious reasons. But "Adolfo" is still common in the Spanish speaking world. Go figure. Maybe that "o" on the end is enough to give the name a different flavor. Or maybe its the lack of involvement of the Spanish speaking world in the war (Spain was a passive ally of Germany, and the Latin American countries were all neutral). So the name is not associated with an enemy as much?



glebel
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27 Oct 2015, 2:40 pm

I would lean toward the lack of involvement thing. Only Brazil sent troops to the European Theatre ( the Italian Campaign) Most of the Latin American countries were pro-Axis until they realized that we were winning.


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0_equals_true
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27 Oct 2015, 4:43 pm

glebel wrote:
I would lean toward the lack of involvement thing. Only Brazil sent troops to the European Theatre ( the Italian Campaign) Most of the Latin American countries were pro-Axis until they realized that we were winning.


These are just as common in Spain.

It is simply a cultural thing. If it was James Hilter, do you think people would stop using the name James? No.

Adolpho has been fairly common

http://www.thinkbabynames.com/meaning/1/Adolpho

But has had a drop off recently.



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27 Oct 2015, 4:47 pm

Why are there so many people in the US called Seth?

Obviously the MacFarlanes were a well known Hewbrew clan, but what about the rest of them?



0_equals_true
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27 Oct 2015, 5:23 pm

It is interesting how many welsh names are popular in the US

Dylan
Evan
Gwen
Owan
Rhys
Rhiannon



naturalplastic
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27 Oct 2015, 5:30 pm

0_equals_true wrote:
Why are there so many people in the US called Seth?

Obviously the MacFarlanes were a well known Hewbrew clan, but what about the rest of them?


There are plenty of American Gentiles with Old Testament names like David,Danial, Joseph,Benjamin, and Joshua. So why not Seth?



glebel
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27 Oct 2015, 5:36 pm

Just do your child a favor and don't name him Ichabod.


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27 Oct 2015, 5:37 pm

naturalplastic wrote:
0_equals_true wrote:
Why are there so many people in the US called Seth?

Obviously the MacFarlanes were a well known Hewbrew clan, but what about the rest of them?


There are plenty of American Gentiles with Old Testament names like David,Danial, Joseph,Benjamin, and Joshua. So why not Seth?


Indeed, it just happens to be quite uncommon elsewhere. It sounds odd to an outsider. Names like Chad are quite American even though it is Anglo/Welsh in origin.

I think these trend happen these days more becuase there and they look through baby name books and site an they like the sound of it.