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Tocayo - A shared title for someone who shares the same name as you. I’ve always wondered why Pancho and Cisco didn’t refer to each other as tocayo.

Other than Latinos, do others share the cultural habit of giving nick names based on a physical or mental flaw? Chueco (if you limp), Coco (someone with a big goiter), Gordo (heavy), Flaca (skinny or heavy), etc.

I was pretty heavy (fat) as a kid and I started hearing that nick name coming at me a couple of times. That’s when I took it upon myself to bestow my own selection of a nick name upon myself. Cisco,

To this day, I’m still Cisco to all my relatives. I like the ring that Tio Cisco has had. It confuses people when I’m in Mexico and introduced as Cisco because a while later my name pops up as Jose, Pepe or even Joe. I used to tell people about the Cisco Kid show but that was an American show about 2 Mexican guys in the American West- people in Mexico had no idea what the hell it was about (that tocayo thing I guess).

The other nickname my mother used to also call me was Pepe.

What are your nick names?

I guess you could call me Latino/a too. Italian, Irish and American. Potentially combustible, and sometimes our family lived up to that.....in a good way!

Our nicknames, though, tended to the sweet side. Bella’s mine, as you might have guessed. I like the way the Mexican culture uses nicknames in a “sweet” way that nobody else would find flattering. Funnily self-deprecating. A culture that doesn’t take itself too seriously (or does it?). Maybe this is true throughout Latin America?

Quote, originally posted by Pepe on 18 September 2008 07:21 PM

Tocayo - A shared title for someone who shares the same name as you. I’ve always wondered why Pancho and Cisco didn’t refer to each other as tocayo

Hey there!
Pancho and Cisco don’t qualify as Tocayo per se becasue they are different. But because Pancho Pistolas and Cisco Kid’s both given names are Francisco, they are still tocayos. Now, if their given name was Pancho and Cisco, that would be a different story.

My nickname growing up was “Temperamento Alemán”. I am a bit of a hot head and my mom is German so there you have it.
My favorite uncle from Nogales, Sonora was a master at giving everyone knicknames, not an easy task when you have 10 children and many nephews and nieces.