Puntos de vista - a personal Spain blog

By Pablo de Ronda

Parents often find it hard to name their new-born babies. In some countries of course, it is straightforward; tradition dictates that the first-born son takes the father’s given name. Problem solved. In others, especially catholic countries, by convention a Christian name must be religious or biblical. Some countries have an official list of forenames and only names on that list are permitted. In others certain names are taboo and avoided. In the majority of secular countries, anything goes.

Preamble

One of the first questions to be resolved by couples who are about to become parents, when they learn of the sex of their baby, is “What are we going to call him/her?”

They will often not be short of advice from relatives and friends. “You’re really going to call her that, are you?”

Others will say “Too modern, too classical, very long, very short.”

Seriously, though, naming a child is not to be taken lightly. A child’s name is, after all, it’s calling card.

Trends

In some western countries, eg the UK and the USA, names come in and out of fashion. Who, today, would name their child Elvis or Madonna? Back in the day many did.

Names like Wayne, Lee and Darren have pretty much come and gone.

Going further back, how many British females alive today are called Elsie, Gladys or Hermione?

My four British grandsons are called Felix, Wilbur, Jude and Buckley. Quite unusual, although Jude has crept into the charts lately.

A noticeable trend in Germany in the last few decades has been to choose Nordic forenames, like Lars, Björn, Ronja or Freya.

My German step-grandchildren are Anton, Madita and Lotta, the latter two characters from children's stories by Swedish writer Astrid Lindgren.

As for the tradition of naming the first male child after the father, a certain former American Heavyweight Boxing Champion, took it to extremes. George Foreman named all five of his sons George also, and one of his seven daughters Georgette. Vain, or what?

George Foreman [Photo: Mundo Deportivo]

Tables or lists

A list of the most popular forenames based on registered births in the UK in the year I was born, 1950, revealed the following:

Top 5 Baby Names for Boys in 1950

1. James

2. Robert

3. John

4. William

5. Richard

Top 5 Baby Names for Girls in 1950

1. Linda

2. Mary

3. Patricia

4. Barbara

5. Susan

70-odd years later, there has been quite a change.

Top 5 Baby Names for Boys in the UK (2021)

1. Noah
2. Oliver
3. George
4. Leo
5. Theo

Top 5 Baby Names for Girls in the UK (2021)

1. Amelia
2. Olivia
3. Isla
4. Ava
5. Freya

Note that there are no names common to either list.

Official Lists

In some countries, eg Spain, certain names are banned. Indeed, there are official lists of approved names enshrined in law, la Ley del 8 de julio de 1957 of the Civil Register. It is regularly updated to account for changing trends.

Banned names include Hitler, Judas, Osama Bin Laden, Loco (Crazy) and Caca (Shit); names of fruits; acronyms; complete names of famous people, eg Rafael Nadal, Pedro Sánchez; commercial names such as Chanel, Nutella, Mercadona; surnames.

So, the daughter of Gwyneth Paltrow and Nick Martin could not have been named Apple if they had been living in Spain at the time.

Classic names such as Martín, Mateo, Hugo, Lucas; and Lucía, María, Martina, Julia and Sofía are still, popular. Up and coming are Leo, Enzo, Thiago, Noah; and Alma, Mía and Chloe (according to the Instituto Nacional de Estádistica (National Statistics Institute).

No Restrictions

In many countries there are no restrictions, including, as mentioned earlier, the UK and the USA, as well as Germany, but by convention, in none of these three countries has the name Adolf been in use since the Second World War.

Apparently, back in the late 30s, Adolf Hitler’s brother is rumoured to have lived in Liverpool, UK. Rumour has it he changed his surname smartish! However, my extensive research has failed to verify this as fact.

© Pablo de Ronda

Acknowledgements:

Carmen Barreiro (Diario Sur)

Diario Informacion

FirstCry Parenting

NHS

Wikipedia

My local is the Ronda Valley Hotel just outside Ronda. It sits in a valley. Hence the name, I guess.

Named for decades Hotel Don Benito, it is still called that by the locals.

It’s a bit of a landmark.

Delivery drivers from DHL, MRW, Boyaca, Correos Express usually ring up to check where you live.

“Do you know the Ronda Valley Hotel on the Seville road?”

“Never ‘eard of it, mate!” is the usual response.

“What about the Don Benito?”

“Yeah, I know that …”

Hotel Ronda Valley

I digress.

I like the Don Benito (sorry, Ronda Valley). It’s near my house. It’s open every day. The staff are delightful. And the prices are OK, albeit slightly dearer than in the villages or in Ronda.

But, if you drink there, you don’t burn lots of expensive fuel getting to Ronda nor have to pay exorbitant car parking charges.

It’s a short walk or an even shorter car trip and the car park is huge and free.

International

A good handful of foreign local residents use the bar in the evenings for a pre-prandial drink or three.

Since Covid-19 lockdown rules were relaxed and the explosion in tourism in Andalucia since 2022, the number of foreigners who stay at the hotel has rocketed.

Added to that many of the staff are from overseas, most from Latin America, and most on the WorkAway programme.

Foreign locals

I’m there for an early morning coffee when I can. As a result I am known by and also know lots of neighbours and local workers. No foreigners at this ungodly hour!

I am also there four or five evenings a week when the neighbours have switched from their breakfast coffee and a chaser (anis, Miura, Patxaran or coñac seem to be the alcoholic tipples of choice) to something more substantial like a whisky and coke, or a vodka and lemonade (not for me I’m afraid, at 6€ a pop!)

This is when the foreign locals also come. Most, by far, are beer drinkers: Nick (English), Julia (Hungarian), Oliver (English/Spanish); Jim (Irish), Helen (English); Vic and Si (English); David (Scottish) and Dagmar (German); Ian, Elaine (both English) and their daughters Robin, Carly and Megan (English/Spanish).

Occasional visitors are Peter (English); Paul (Yorkshire) and Synnove (Danish).

Foreign guests

Over the years I’ve got chatting to travellers from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Holland, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, USA.

Interesting.

Foreign workers

The hotel has benefited from the use of Workaway volunteers. Since Covid, most seem to be from Latin America. Currently there are three argentin@s, una uruguaya and dos chilen@s.

In the past there have been workaway@s from Austria, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Peru, Poland, Russia, Slovenia and USA. 

Some have stayed for months; others for less time. To a man/woman they have all been pleasant, polite and intelligent.

Last week

One night last week I popped into the RV for a drink, as is my wont. I hadn’t arranged to meet anyone, so I used the time to catch up on my mobile phone messages.

That went well for about half an hour, until suddenly I found myself in a fascinating conversation with two Chileans and two Argentinians.

Felipe, just arrived, is 34 and from Chile. He is a physiotherapist, and now a Workaway.

He has lived in Ireland, the UK, and Portugal, and is now in Spain for a period. He speaks good English, so most of our conversation was in my mother tongue. Felipe sees his future here in Spain.

His “missus” Andrea is also Chilean, aged 33.

The two argentinos, who arrived a month or so ago are tall and handsome Lucas (26) and beautifully-formed Victoria (25).

Another argentino, on the full-time staff, is Gaston. His wife, also called Andrea (incidentally the name of my first ever proper English girlfriend when I was a teenager) is from Uruguay.

On Friday I came across a couple of Danish pastries, I mean ladies, mum and daughter, who were guests at the hotel.

Lotte, 50, and her daughter Mie, 21, were making a short tour of Andalucia. They’d “done” Cadiz, Sevilla and Ronda, and were planning on visiting Setenil de las Bodegas (Cadiz) before heading to Fuengirola for the last five days of their holiday before flying home.

As you would expect they spoke excellent English.

We ranged through several topics of mutual interest, before Lotte revealed that they had recently bought a holiday home on the Baltic coast. We are invited.

OK, bar talk, but we exchanged business cards and promised to keep in touch. I’ve since viewed their property on the internet. It looks fantastic, just off the beach. Brilliant. I think me and the missus might head off there later in the year.

This week

It’s Tuesday. I haven’t met anybody foreign yet this week (except my missus, she is Deutsch) . I’m off down to the Bar Internacional now for an aperitif or three. I wonder who’ll be there …..

Stop press

I met an English couple, birdwatchers, who know the area and were here for five days.

I also met a delightful Polish couple, Kamilla and Woytek, who came on the spur of the moment from their home in Lodz, Poland.

We spent a couple of hours putting the world to rights. Good stuff.

Further information

Workaway.info the site for cultural exchange. Gap year volunteer for food and accommodation whilst travelling abroad.

Working for free? Why? Er… why not? Part 2. (eyeonspain.com)

Note: Some names have been changed by request.

© Pablo de Ronda

Tags: anis, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Boyaca, Canada, Colombia, coñac, Correos Express, Danish, Denmark, DHL, France, Germany, Holland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lodz, Miura, MRW, Netherlands, New Zealand, Patxaran, Peru, Poland, Russia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, USA, Workaway 

By Paul Whitelock

I've been writing for Eye On Spain for several years under different aliases, although I never really tried very hard to be completely anonymous.

Now it's time to "fess up", so here is a list of all my noms de plume on EOS.

MY COVID-19 DIARY - MARCH 2020 TO DATE

The coronavirus pandemic has hit the world hard, with over 120 million global victims.

I am British, married to a German and we live in Andalucía in the Serranía de Ronda.

This blog contains articles i've written since we both caught Covid-19 at the beginning of 2020. It was a weird life of curfews, lockdowns, masks, hand gel, rules and regulations and, for those of us who were affected directly, the vicious after-effects of the virus, long-covid, bereavement and financial ruin.

I started this blog in the aftermath of our personal experiences with the Coronavirus. Hopefully it has run its course, ie both Covid and this blog.

SPANISH MATTERS - A BLOG IN ENGLISH AND SPANISH FOR THOSE LEARNING THE LANGUAGE

This blog is entitled "Spanish Matters", because it does!

Matter, that is.

If you have committed to living in Spain, in my opinion you should also make a commitment to learn some Spanish. Your life will be enhanced.

So this is a blog about matters Spanish, as well as promoting the notion that Spanish does indeed matter.

The blog contains articles in both English and Spanish. Don Pablo hopes it will be helpful to those learning the language.

The name Don Pablo betrays my origins as a former Spanish (and German) teacher in the UK.

This blog will continue to be added to from time to time.

HOW TO ..... ?

This blog is intended to be helpful to English-speaking foreign residents in Spain by explaining "how to ... " do certain things.

The Crazy Guy has lived in Spain full time since 2008. A fluent Spanish-speaker he reckons he knows his way round the bureaucracy, the indifference and sometimes downright rudeness of "funcionarios".

The Crazy Guy is known amongst the Spanish where he lives as "El Loco", largely because, despite his advanced age, he's always on the go, doing this and that. The Crazy Guy hopes his "How to ..." articles will be helpful to others.

ONLY JOE KING

A light-hearted look at life in Andalucía and Spain in general; its good points and its bad. This blog doesn't pull any punches.

Only Joe King didn't really want anybody to know anything about him. That's just gone out of the window, BTW.

He's blogging because he thinks he has valid things to say. He hopes readers appreciate the pun in the name (Only joking!).

PUNTOS DE VISTA - A PERSONAL SPAIN BLOG

Musings about Spain and Spanish life by Paul Whitelock, hispanophile of some 45 years and resident of Ronda in Andalucia for the last 15 years.

This is my main blog, indicated by the number of posts I have made, already in excess of 100.

SERRANÍA KITCHEN - RECIPES FROM AROUND THE WORLD

This blog contains a selection of recipes from all over, in particular from Andalucía, Asia, England, Germany and the wider Mediterranean area.

Contributors include Rita Drechsler, Jovan Le Knorz, Madita Schröder, Carolyn Emmett, Simon Whitelock, Julie Wilkinson and Paul Whitelock, who are mostly members of the same extended Anglo-German family. Rita and Paul live in the Serranía de Ronda in Andalucía. Madita and Jovan live in Baden-Württemberg, near Heilbronn, Germany. Carolyn and Julie also live in the Serrania de Ronda and Simon lives near Bristol, UK.

THE CRAZY GUY

The Crazy Guy is known amongst the Spanish people where he lives as "El Loco", largely because, despite his advanced age, he's always active, doing this and that. So, he's "The Crazy Guy".

This blog is about some of the things he's been getting up to lately.

The Crazy Guy (El Loco, according to his fellow villagers) likes to keep busy. He hopes readers of this blog find his experiences interesting. He has another blog on EOS called "How to .....?" which offers advice on how to do things here in Spain, based on his experiences.

THE CULTURE VULTURE

A blog about cultural things: art, music, dance, literature, film and theatre.

The Culture Vulture enjoys the good things in life. These include art, music, dance, film, theatre, and books.

THE CURMUDGEON

The Curmudgeon is a miserable sod. He likes to have a moan. He tackles subjects which many foreigners living in Spain agree with but are too polite to say anything about.

The Curmudgeon is now in his early 70s now and has lived in the Serrania de Ronda since he was 58.

THE HISTORY MAN

This blog contains interesting facts about the history of Spain and things Spanish.

The History Man discovered Spain some 50-odd years ago and he fell in love with the place. He has been resident here for 15 years and takes a keen interest in all things historical, geographical and cultural. He is blogging because he hopes readers will find what he writes interesting.

THE SPANISH FLY - TRAVELS IN SPAIN AND BEYOND

The Spanish Fly is a nom de plume of Paul Whitelock who first visited Spain at the age of 20. Now more than 50 years later, he has been to most parts of the country, including nine of the 12 islands. He has owned property in Andalucía since 2001 and has lived in the region for the last 15 years. This blog is a travelogue about some of the places he has visited.

The Spanish Fly writes keenly about his travel experiences in Spain and beyond. He hopes you enjoy sharing his journeys and are inspired to make similar ones yourself.

***

EPILOGUE

So, now you know. All of these blogs are written by li'l ol' me, Paul Whitelock.

I hope you enjoy reading them. Please feel free to comment.

© Paul Whitelock

Tags: Andalucia, blog, blogger, Coronavirus, Covid-19, Crazy Guy, Culture Vulture, Curmudgeon, Don Pablo, El Loco, EOS, Eye on Spain, History Man, How to .....?, Joe King, noms de plume, Only Joe King, Paul Whitelock, Puntos de Vista, Serrania Kitchen, Spanish Fly, Spanish Matters