Kristine

Names, Nicknames & Short names in Spanish


I have previously talked about names in Spain. Both how very confusing it was to me to see that the whole British Royal Family has gotten brand new names here in Spain, and also how certain (or most?) names in Spanish can be turned into several others, that don't necessarily resemble the original. (Such as Francisco --> Paco, og Jose --> Pepe.)
I have been told a number of times that it's just what people do here, it's no big deal. And since my name doesn't exist in Spanish, as it is written, I just get a "Spanishfied" version of it. I gave up insisting that my name was different a long time ago. I was met with blank looks and comments like "But that's the same!" Ha, yes, exactly the same- just how Prince Charles is exactly the same as Principe Carlos!
So, that's just how it works, get used to it and expect to get a lot of nicknames, right?
That's when it was so so fascinating to me to see a little video clip about this Catalan politician, called Josep Lluis Carod-Rovira.
Josep in Catalan is Jose in Castellano (Spanish). And Lluis in Catalan is Luis in Castellano. At some debate he is approached with the Spanish version of his name, (Jose Luis) by a Spanish person from Castilla y Leon.

An excerpt from the video on Youtube:
-Don Jose Luis. (Mr Jose Luis.) -Perdon, yo me llamo Josep Lluis. (Excuse me, my name is Josep Lluis.) -Bueno, es que yo no entiendo Catalan. (Well, I don't understand (/speak) Catalan.) -Es que no hace falta entender Catalan. Yo me llamo como me llamo aqui y en la China popular blabla y usted no tiene ningun derecho a modificar mi nombre. (That doesn't matter. My name is my name here and in China and you don't have any right to change my name.)
Fine, fine. The name in his passport is Josep Lluis, just like the name in my passport is the name I would love to be called. But all this time, I thought it was normal and perfectly OK here to call people other things than their real names, so why does this Josep Lluis get so offended?
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