Gabriel Paulista- What’s In A Name?

On Thursday, Arsenal formally announced the signing of Brazilian centre half Gabriel Paulista from Villarreal. Gabriel’s has been a quick and quiet ascent. Less than 18 months ago, he was playing for unfashionable Brasileirão outfit Vitoria. As is the way with modern transfers, news broke that the Gunners were negotiating with Gabriel some days before the transfer was completed.

Gabriel does not have a huge profile, so the signing created much discussion. Understandably, many referred to Gabriel as ‘Paulista’, believing it to be his surname. I’ve picked up quite a lot of flack on twitter for correcting people around this and it has been difficult (and a touch repetitive) to try and portray this cultural nuance in 140 characters.

Writing an article about it is possibly quite pretentious, but to be honest, it’s handy to have a link to refer to rather than indulging a circular argument with hundreds of people at a time in limited characters! So here goes, I hope this comes across as informative, rather than as preachy or even angry, because that is certainly not the spirit with which the piece is intended and enough people have shown a genuine curiosity about it in conversation.

Ok, so first, why is it wrong to refer to him as ‘Paulista’? Well, simply put, it’s not his name. His name is Gabriel Armando de Abreu. Now, Brazil is a country of 200 million people or thereabouts. There are more footballers in Brazil than in any country in the world. Lots of them have the same name! Suffixing Gabriel’s name with ‘Paulista’ is simply a way of differentiating him from all of the other footballers called Gabriel in Brazil.

‘Paulista’ is a term for anybody from the state of São Paulo. So ‘Gabriel Paulista’ effectively means ‘Gabriel from São Paulo.’ Referring to him as ‘Gabriel’ or ‘Gabriel Paulista’ is correct, referring to him as ‘Paulista’ is basically just calling him ‘person from São Paulo.’

This is a very common occurrence with Brazilian footballers. Take Juninho for instance. The pint sized playmaker that took in three spells at Middlesbrough is known as ‘Juninho Paulista’ in Brazil as he is from São Paulo. The Juninho that spent some years walloping free kicks into the top corner from 35 yards at Lyon is known as ‘Juninho Pernambucano.’ ‘Pernambucano’ is a reference to anybody that hails from the state of Pernambuco. Like Gabriel, neither Juninho will have the state of their origin suffixed onto their name in common circles, it only exists for football reasons to differentiate them.

It can get complicated. For instance, Ronaldinho’s actual name is Ronaldo. However, he did not want to create confusion between himself and the Ronaldo that played for Barcelona, Inter and Real Madrid before getting very fat. However, for the short time that Ronaldo played in Brazil for Cruzeiro, he had also been known as Ronaldinho. He only chose to revert to Ronaldo when he left for Europe. So to avoid confusion (!), Ronaldinho is known as Ronaldinho Gaucho in Brazil. ‘Gaucho’ is a term for anybody from the state of Rio Grande do Sul and it literally means ‘cowboy’ in Portuguese.

There are dozens of other examples. My Brazilian side, Atlético Mineiro has a midfielder referred to as Rafael Carioca, ‘Carioca’ being a term for anyone from Rio de Janeiro. Alexandre Pato slightly subverts this convention. Again, ‘Pato’ is not his name (Alexandre Rodrigues da Silva- a string of commonly used Brazilian names), but it’s a reference to the city of his birth, Pato Branco. However, ‘Pato’ is also Portuguese for ‘duck’ so he actually takes it as a nickname as well, which is why he wears it on his shirt, unlike other Brazilian players with geographical names. Chelsea had a player known as “Mineiro” in the 2008-09 season. Mineiro actually hails from the state of Rio Grade do Sul, however, he is apparently a shy and reserved character, and these are seen as typical qualities for somebody that hails from Minas Gerais.

So why doesn’t Gabriel go by his surname, de Abreu? Well, the reason is cultural. Brazilians are warm, informal people. They don’t like to use surnames in everyday life because it is considered cold. The first time you meet a Brazilian, you will be greeted with a hug. Indeed, the Portuguese word for ‘hugs’ is ‘abraços’ and is commonly used to punctuate text messages and emails between friends and acquaintances. Likewise, ‘beijos’ which means ‘kisses.’ Besides which, Brazilians tend to have lots of names (my wife has four, because women typically maintain their maiden name and take their husband’s surname too), so it can be quite the task to remember people’s surnames!

Brazilian footballers will ordinarily have either their first name or their nickname on their shirts. The country’s flair for nicknames is legion. ‘Ganso’ for instance, means ‘goose.’ The Brazil coach was saddled with ‘Dunga’, a rough approximation of ‘dopey’ from the seven dwarfs, by a cruel uncle that mocked his height as a youngster. ‘Kaka’ is so called because his young brother had trouble pronouncing ‘Ricardo’ as a child and would instead babble ‘Kaka.’ Some players take a simple shortening of their first names. Arsenal’s Edu for instance, was named Eduardo. Fluminense’s Fred (pronounced ‘Freji’ in Portuguese) is called Frederico.

Brazilians can be very creative with names too. In Serie B, there is a player named Jonh Lennon (the parents clearly misspelled ‘John’) and one called Michael Jackson. Serie A boasts players named Kennedy and Nixon. The ex Manchester City full back Maicon is named Maicon Douglas. His parents wanted to call him ‘Michael Douglas’ but the registrar misheard Maicon’s father. A very close friend of my wife’s family in Minas Gerais is named Hans Muller. He has no German blood whatsoever, his parents simply liked the name.

So, there you have it! A whistle stop tour into the fascinating, if niche, subject, of Brazilian footballer’s names. Now, if I catch you calling him ‘Paulista’ again, I’ll send ‘fingers’ and ‘slasher’ around to sort you out!