Why is "Paco" the equivalent of "Francisco"?

Question

In Spain it is quite common to use the hypocoristic Paco to refer to the people with the name Francisco.

Why is that? Wikipedia states that:

In Spanish, people with the name Francisco sometimes are nicknamed "Paco": San Francisco de Asís was known as Pater Comunitatis (The Community father) when he founded the Franciscan order, "Paco" is a short form of "Pater Comunitatis".

But there is no reference to this fact and I wonder if this is another built-up story related to ¿Por qué Pepe es equivalente a José? with Pater Putativus.

Note, as seen in comments, that also Pacho (in Colombia) and Pancho (in Chile, among others) are used as hypocoristics to Francisco.

The Pater Comunitatis story is the same I heard before but it is even more curious when you think that around latin america we do not use Paco but Pacho — DGaleano, Aug 02 '16 at 13:04
@VladimirNu I don't think so. I've met some Pachos in Colombia. Pancho is another hypocoristic, as well. So now we already have three: Paco, Pacho and Pancho : ) — fedorqui, Aug 02 '16 at 13:32
Totally off-topic, but in Chile paco is a short name for cop, which is carabinero. — Alonso Urbano, Aug 02 '16 at 13:33
@VladimirNu oh, interesting! In Spain they are called maderos and I see paco has tons of meanings in DRAE. — fedorqui, Aug 02 '16 at 13:35
@fedorqui I confirmed that. I have a venezuelan friend (Francisco, by the way) who just told me that there they use Pancho as well, but some friends from him (also from Venezuela) call him Pacho, he believes because they have family in Colombia and live close to the border. — Alonso Urbano, Aug 02 '16 at 13:42
@VladimirNu I thing that in Chile we tell the cops pacos because in colonial times was a famous guard named Francisco. — Rodrigo, Aug 02 '16 at 13:46
@VladimirNu I'm wrong. In Etimologías de Chile there are several theories about the origin of our Chilean pacos. — Rodrigo, Aug 02 '16 at 13:51
Another hypochoristic for Francisco is Curro (at least in Spain), and I don't think it also comes from Pater Comunitatis. — Charlie, Aug 02 '16 at 19:14
La verdad que hasta ahora lo veo el porque del acronimo bueno para darte más datos en mi país El Salvador se usa el deciles Chepe a los que se llaman José. — Rafalenfs, Aug 03 '16 at 06:04
@VladimirNu, en the tropical region of Bolivia cops are called "pacos" as well. I was always curious about this. There is a chance that the nickname comes from your country (now, is this valid for the whole Chile, or just some regions?). Glad you brought the offTopic — Delonix R., Aug 03 '16 at 23:50
@DelonixR. It's used in all the country. It's not polite to call a cop that way, by the way, but everyone use this in colloquial. — Alonso Urbano, Aug 04 '16 at 00:19
Hi @VladimirNu, just like in my hometown, Santa Cruz de la Sierra. You never call a cop: "Mr. Paco"...lol! — Delonix R., Aug 04 '16 at 00:45

score 9 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 05 '16 at 06:55

9

Amando de Miguel briefly states some theories in this article. I tend to favour the one pointing at the abbreviation of Phranciscus (the latinised version of Francisco de Asís's nickname) as Ph.co in signs and inscriptions. This explains Paco which, relaxing the /k/ sound, becomes Pacho and, mixing this with the original n in the full name, gives Pancho. Versions in other language, such as the Aragonese Francho or the Italian Franco, can be explained also through abbreviation, including or not the relaxation of the /k/ sound.

The blog post ¿Cómo se llega de Francisco a Paco? expands a bit on the explanation, adding an interesting parallel between the proposed Ph.co or Phco and the current Fco., which we use in names such as Francisco Javier (usually abbreviated nowadays as Fco. Javier in writing).

edited Aug 05 '16 at 06:55

fedorqui

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answered Aug 03 '16 at 12:48

Gorpik

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From the moment this question was asked I've thought that it was going to be something about the abbreviation of the name. I'm an amateur genealogist, and I've seen a lot of birth records of people named Francisco, abbreviated to Franc.o (with the o as an exponent). Those records were from the XVII century, and I supposed that a previous abbreviation should be the origin of Paco). – Charlie Aug 03 '16 at 14:07
Even more orthographic changes come from the diminutive Paquito, which I have found more often in feminine Paquita and finally shortened Paqui. – Miguel Mar 05 '22 at 11:33

score 9 · Answer 2 · edited May 05 '18 at 22:58

In brief: I think the evolution from Francisco to Paco, Pacho and Pancho obeys the same mechanisms observed in other hipocorystics, probably related to child pronunciation or imitation of this one for emotional reasons.

With Chilean examples, there are other hypocoristics where a F is changed by a P:

Alfonso - Poncho
Felipe - Pipe
Josefa - Chepa
Francisco - Pancho

And where the R sound is deleted or replaced:

Federico - ~~Rico~~ - Quico
Mercedes - ~~Merche~~ - Meche
Beatriz - ~~Betri~~ - Beti
Patricio - ~~Patro~~ - Pato
Victoria - ~~Toria~~ - Toya
Sergio - ~~Chercho~~ - Checho
Francisco - ~~Fraco~~ - Paco

And in which the word length is shortened to two syllables (this includes all the previous examples):

Florencio - Floro
Alejandro - Jano
Eduardo - Yayo
Vicente - Vicho
Rodrigo - Rorro
Francisco - Paco

And where the accent position in the word shortened is changed to the first syllable:

Catalina - Cata
José - Cote
Gabriel - Gabo
Victoria - Viqui
Mauricio - Mauro

Why is "Paco" the equivalent of "Francisco"?

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