Do you know your Filipino given names? Help!

August 22, 2015 6:48 PM

Quick and simple question: How common is the name Janeskie or Janeski as a given or first name for women in the Philippines?

It's probably just a weird coincidence, but I discovered last night that my last name (Janeski) is the first name of at least some people in the Philippines. I discovered this because a girl in the Philippines mistakenly tagged me on Facebook in one of her pictures instead of herself.

If you are Filipino or have lived there, please confirm I am not going crazy; is this a common first name there? If so, where exactly does it come from? Are there other names like that? Thanks!

posted by bobbyno to Society & Culture (1 answer total)

Best answer: I didn't know any personally when I lived there, although I may have known some Janes that were actually Janeskis. Searching facebook, a friend of a friend in the Philippines comes up, so it's probably relatively common. It could be just a common variant of Jane--Most of their first names are english/spanish christian names but they also get pretty creative with endings. (e.g. I knew a girl whose 6 siblings' names all started with "Em-") Or, it could be there was some U.S./international celebrity there named Janeski and people just named their kids after them.

This is the classic bemused-expat article on Filipino names. It's pretty funny and entirely true. (Although "Baboy" is the word for pig and I can't say I knew anyone called that. Plenty of "Buboys", though.)
posted by ropeladder at 10:43 PM on August 22, 2015 [1 favorite]