We Filipinos like double-rhyming nicknames. My daughter’s first nickname was Yenyen. Aileen’s daughters’ orig nicknames were Kaykay, Tintin, Bingbing. My nephews’ names before emigrating to the US were Junjun and Nengneng.
Ilonggo’s have half-rhyming pet names. My husband’s Dodong. His brother was Nonoy, His cousins were Bebeng, Nonong.
Their maid was Ayang.
In my parents’ generation, more popular was the “ing”. My mom’s Felicing. Her niece is Taling. Our neighbors were Ka Aning, Ka Juling, Mang Pedring, The two official gay guys in our town were named Manuling and Kubing. The one selling kakanin was ka Lusing.
Long time ago, the Catholic church was very strict when it comes to names. Babies had to be named after a saint or else they would not be registered or baptized. That’s why there was a whole generation of Marias. If the baby is a girl and the given name was not acceptable to the church, they just added Maria as a compromise. I wasn’t sure how they remedied the situation when it’s a baby boy.
Lately I have noticed that we no longer follow that tradition. I’ve been seeing names that are out of this world, unique or weird.
Real name samples:
1. Bakulaw
2. Rich Zoro
3. Rolex
4. Olympics
5. Bakul-bakul
6. Violina
7. If you meet someone nicknamed Gina, please verify what’s her full name is. Regina? Genoveva? Because in HK, there’s a woman who worked in a bank named Va-gina.
