NAMES / NOMBRES

What's in a name? asked the poet. According to Dale Carnegie, it is the sound most people love to hear and that's why he advises us to repeat our interlocutor's name often while we talk to her. When we are born, our relatives give us a name, a given name. My given name is Delfín, after my father. As my family was Christian of sorts, that given name was also a Christian name. St. Delfín was a Christian martyr and his festivity is celebrated on the 24th of December. I was baptized, it seems, at the age of 3 or 4 in a church and near a Font, and that is why it is also called a font name, or nombre de pila, in Spanish. Of the three names I have, the first, Delfín, is my first name. Using the first name among English-speaking people signifies cordiality and friendliness."Call me Delfín", I will say to someone, waving Dr. Carbonell we started with. Luckily in Spanish, we tuteamos people, more and more, I may add.