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Anyone who has even a mild interest in
soccer will soon find that Brazilian
soccer players typically are known only by a single name. For instance,
currently
two most famous players are Ronaldo and Ronaldohino (literally, little
Ronaldo). And who can forget perhaps the most famous soccer player of all
time, Pele? Did you know his full name was Edson Arantes do Nascimento? Take a look at their World Cup roster and you will see most of the team only
goes by a single name.
Several other countries also have players that go by single names (such as
Portugal, the nation that colonized Brazil, another former colony of
Portugal, Angola, and Spain). But perhaps due to Brazil's dominance, they
are the most well known.
But why only one name? In Brazil, it is convention. In all settings, nicknames and firstnames are used by virtually everyone (clergy, doctors, even the President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is known by Lula). One reason for the preferential use of first names or nicknames could be because of Brazil's historically high illiteracy rate. Thus shortened spoken names (and thus names easier to spell) are used more often than longer birth names.
Another reason might have roots in the slave system. Although slavery was abolished in Brazil in the late 1800s, slaves were documented by use of just their first name or first name and country of origin.
The custom in many places (such as England and the US) is to refer to athletes by their surnames, thus when the English introduced soccer to Brazil the Brazilians at first conformed to the English way. However, as the sport gained popularity the convention of nicknames quickly gained favor.
All information for this entry was taken from an article at Slate. Click here to read the original article.
