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I'm trying to name a character who comes from a Spanish speaking family, and the first thing I went with was Mariposa, and it felt really right for the character until I thought, wait, I should probably check if that's a real name. As it turns out, most people I see talking about it are white Americans, so would any native Spanish speaker in their right mind name their daughter Mariposa?

Alternatively, I'm considering Eva Virginia as a possible alternative name; is that a real thing?

(Edit: Heck sorry if this is off-topic!)

Mike
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Isa
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    If you like the sound of the name, there are the similar Marisol, Mariana, Mariela, Marina etc but Mariposa is extremely uncommon and has some probably unwanted connotations (14). – jacobo Jul 21 '18 at 11:15
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because this is not about the Spanish Language, but about culture and proper names. – Diego Jul 22 '18 at 03:56
  • If you are writing a story, I recommend buying one of those "100.000 names for babies" books. You have a lot of names, sometimes sorted by language/culture and it will be really handy to name your characters. – Diego Jul 22 '18 at 03:59
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    You can check a list of names and the number in Spain the Instituto Nacional de Estadistica http://www.ine.es/daco/daco42/nombyapel/nombres_por_edad_media.xls – roetnig Jul 22 '18 at 07:58
  • I want to add, that some time ago in Spain there were news about a couple that wanted to name their child "Lobo" and the judge denied it. They argued that "León" had been in use for boys names for quite a while. I believe that after going to court, judge ruled it was OK for the kid to have "Lobo" as a name. I remember the father in the news saying "I got a phone call from the father of "Goku" (name of the main character of a manga/anime. I guess that those parents went through the same experience...). So, careful to use animals as proper nouns for people, especially if they carry connotations. – Diego Jul 22 '18 at 16:28
  • @Diego - I'm not sure how common it is for the government to control babies' names, in Spanish speaking countries in general. I've never heard of something similar happening in Mexico, for example. – aparente001 Jul 22 '18 at 23:10
  • @ukemi - For a baby girl I wouldn't be too worried about the effeminate male connotation. But I agree, best to avoid the name. It makes me think of "La vaca Mariposa tuvo un terné" by Simón Díaz (https://www.letras.com/simon-diaz/825382/). – aparente001 Jul 22 '18 at 23:17
  • Voting to reopen. The answer to the question as posed: an American bastardization. Seems like a reasonable, answerable question. – aparente001 Jul 22 '18 at 23:25
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    this is off-topic and opinion based.. still i want to answer him xD – Mike Jul 23 '18 at 20:12
  • and comment-answering : would you name a person "butterfly" think about it for a seconds.. i guess not – Mike Jul 23 '18 at 20:18
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    @aparente001 it is definitely "answerable", but if you are voting to reopen it could be good to elaborate more on why it is on topic. I see it as opinion based, since the question is "Would any native Spanish speaker in their right mind name their daughter X". It's a different matter if you can (legal) or if people do (cultural), and none are of topic here. Also, although it may be interesting, I think it is really subjective (and culture-related) what makes a "valid" or "good" name. Like, Dolores, Socorro, California, Dakota, Khaleesi, Madalena, Pánfila, Marciana, Casta, Jesusa, etc. – Diego Jul 24 '18 at 18:35
  • @Diego - Well, I made up some sentence fragments that would search for the use of Mariposa as a person's name, and came up completely empty. It appears that Mariposa is a special word that Spanish speakers do not use as a name. This is useful information. – aparente001 Jul 26 '18 at 03:32
  • @aparente001 There is a "Mariposa county" in California. As I said, you might find someone name Mariposa but, regardless of the beauty of the name, connotations, legal considerations, etc. this question is off topic, since it is a) asking something not really related to the language (although you could try to turn it into a language related question by explaining connotations of the word for example, and then reasoning why it would be or not a good idea, but >>>) and b) opinion based. Being answerable and begin on topic are two different things. – Diego Jul 26 '18 at 13:33

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I am spanish, 27 years old, and I have never met someone with that name, so I would not recommend that. Instead I would use María or Ana, those are common names.

Edit: Eva Virginia sounds real to me, but I think it is more appropriate for Latin america spanish speakers rather than those from Spain. Sorry for my english.

chemagares
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  • I don't see any difference between America and Spain regarding Eva and Virginia. They are perfectly real names and I've met many of them in my life. – FGSUZ Jul 21 '18 at 13:08
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    I suppose @chemageres is referring to the conpound name Eva Virginia and not Eva or Virginia individually. – roetnig Jul 22 '18 at 07:55
  • There are tons of other possible names; I would also give "Eva Virginia" a thumbs down. It's too much of a mouthful, for my taste. How about Eva María? – aparente001 Jul 22 '18 at 23:19
  • Carmen, Carmen is a good Spanish Spain Name , names like "Eva and Maria and virginia" are heavily catholic and more when together, i would suggest them only if you want to hint a religious context. – Mike Jul 23 '18 at 20:13
  • I disagree with the Latinamerican part. Eva is not a common name in Colombia. Obviously it is known but not common. The only Eva I know is a Spanish girl that works at a news channel. The compound Eva Virginia sounds terrible to me. So I suggest your answer should be limited to what you really know about Spain. – DGaleano Jul 24 '18 at 14:15
  • If you check here http://www.babynamewizard.com/baby-name/girl/eva you will see that the name Eva has been popular in Europe with a huge decline in recent years but the name does not show up in any Latinamerican country. – DGaleano Jul 24 '18 at 14:20