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In Catalonia, there's a saying: "De Joans, Joseps i ases n'hi ha a totes les cases" which means it's very common to find men named Joan or Josep, and it adds that in every home there's a donkey too. (What's not explicit is if refers to the animal or to a stupid men).

In the opposite, my name in not very common in Catalunya, the least for a men (the feminine form, Claudia, is becoming popular in the ten last years approximately). But in my family, there is four "Claudi": in order of apparition, my grand-father, my father, myself, and my son… we could say its quite a tradition. And all of us are very pleased with this name, because its not common, it's original, unless it isn't very practical when you are at home an the mother says "Claudi!!!": You should confuse who is the call addressee, or you can do like you don't know.


Claudi, the third

I agree with you, Claudi: In Catalonia "De Joans, Joseps i ases n'hi ha a totes les cases" . . . but the is another masculine common name we can't forget: Jordi. Sant Jordi is Catalonia's patron saint and its day, the 23rd April is a very special day in our country. The streets are full of roses and books because the tradition is that men give roses to women and women give books to men.

About feminine names, the most common is Maria, but we can also finf lots of Annas or Montses. My name ( Esther ) isn't very very common but I always find a lot around me. When I was at primary school there were five Esthers in the classroom and when I move to high school I found two Esthers more- Nowadays, in my work we are four Esthers. It's funny but it generates a bit chaos.

Nowadays foreign names are also presents in our culture. It isn't difficult to find names as Christian, Kevin or Kenneth most of them due to the influence of the cinema or the globalization. Although, the most common names continue being catalan: Marc for boy and Maria for girl.

Talking about family names, in Spanish and Catalan as in English, we have surnames that mean professions. For example we can easily find Herrero / Ferrer , Zapatero / Sabater , Guerrero, Forner , etc. . .