Nicknames are a big part of popular culture in most countries, particularly in sports, but most still hold tight to formalised names when it comes to anything official. Not so the Brazilians. Affectionate familiarity in Brazil is for everyone from the kid next door all the way up to the country’s president. They don’t use the last names.
It’s why no one knows Ricardo Izecson Dos Santos Leite as anything but Kaka. Why one player on Brazil’s 2006 team was called, simply, Fred. And why Edson Arantes Do Nascimento is just some guy until you realise he’s Pele.
Learning just one name can be tough, so imagine the meltdown that mouthful could cause. If you were to use the last name, it’s kind of more complicated. So, too, when there’s more than one person with the same name. Sometimes they’re distinguished by using second names — look at Brazil’s squad for South Africa, there’s a Gilberto and a Gilberto Silva. Other times, an “inho” (meaning small) or an “ao” (meaning big) is tacked on to a name. That’s how there came to be a Ronaldo and a little Ronaldo.
Brazilians often pick up nicknames as kids, and they stick for life. Many are diminutives of first names, like the president, Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, who is known to all as Lula. Others are more random. Kaka got his nickname from his little brother, who couldn’t pronounce Ricardo.
Brazil’s coach answers to “dopey,” as “Dunga” is Portuguese for the seventh dwarf in Snow White, and Dunga’s uncle saddled him with the nickname when he was a kid and they didn’t think he’d grow to be very tall.
While Brazilians don’t see anything unusual in their use of first names and nicknames, it makes the team all the more appealing to those not used to being on such familiar terms. It feels like they’re friends, like one of your gang. The Brazilians feel they’re are so familiar with the national team because it’s them. It’s the poor, the rich, the south, the north... it’s very personal for a Brazilian. — AP