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They say that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
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Back in the sixties
there was a cute song called the NAME GAME which consisted of a verse by which one could
alter names. It began with :
Nick, nick bo bick, banana fana fo fick, fee fi mo mick, Nick.
Unfortunately, that
name game doesn't work well with names greater than two syllables.
Er...Antonio,
Antonio, bo bonio, banana fana fo fonio, fee fi mo monio, Antonio
Not too smooth is it? It
works a bit better with Antonio's first name José.
But it's really quite irrelevant because that is not the type of "Name Game" of
which I'm speaking.
Antonio to an
interviewer of Premiere Magazine |
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| Jay Leno introducing Antonio on the Tonight show: "It's that name, you
know Kevin. Just saying that name you get women like that! You say, "Hi, Hugh
Finkelstein.
(shakes head No)
I -- AM -- ANTONIO -- BANDERAS!
(screams from audience)
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So what about José
Dominguez?
Let us research some of the background information on names associated with Antonio:
As most good fans know Antonio's actual name is José Antonio Dominguez Bandera. [That last name is not a
typo]
Dominguez
is the surname of his father José; Bandera is the surname of his mother Ana. While the
Spanish combine the parents' surnames, by tradition, it is the father's surname that would
go to his children. So one would expect Antonio's daughter to be named Estela del Carmen
Dominguez Griffith. Instead, she is known as Stella del Carmen Banderas Griffith. Since a
large part of the population is unaware that Antonio's last name is not Banderas it's
obviously simpler to go with Antonio's artistic name. However, in the future, Stella (or
any sisters or brothers she might have) may have a choice. And it's not inconceivable that
siblings may end up with different surnames as happened to the Sheen-Estevez family
(Martin Sheen took an Irish surname, but son Emilio chose the father's real surname --
another Irish-latino acting combination.) According to Rosie O'Donnell, Melanie had
another reading of the Banderas surname. Melanie informed Rosie, that she was going to be
Melanie Ban-freaking-deras {the surname was cleaned up slightly for mixed company}
It comes from the town of Casarabonela, from the time of the moriscos [the Spanish Moors
who from 711-1492 accepted Christianity]. According to Antonio's mother Ana in Tan
sólo un actor, "Casarabonela was one of the towns that was delayed in being
conquered under the reign of the Catholic Kings [Ferdinand and Isabella], that is why they
call us moriscos. The Arabs that stayed and many of the Jews were converted to
Christianity before the Christian persecutions, and they changed their names for other
last names derived from their occupations. Surely, 'Bandera' comes from the house of
'Abanderado'" [meaning -standard bearer; champion; defender of a cause] . Bandera, on
the other hand, means simply "flag".
That might have been Antonio's pseudonym instead of Banderas. In his early days in Madrid
when Antonio was still José Antonio Dominguez, he and friends looked for a possible name.
According to Tan sólo un actor, this was a favorite of
Antonio's. Curiously, a fan tells me she met Antonio in 1993 working out at a gym in
Madrid called José Abascal. Pedro Almodovar ended the debate and convinced Antonio to go
with Banderas. Antonio was said to be enthusiastic about pluralizing his name "
because then Spain was immersed in the birth of autonomous communities, and it seemed to
me preferable to encompass all the flags, rather than just one." So, Banderas is a
little bit of a political statement in support of the new Spain.
A recent CRISTINA interview answers this one:
"Stella I like because it signifies "star" in
Latin. It is an easy name to pronounce in English and in Spanish. Concerning Carmen,
because I am a sailor by vocation, I am enchanted by yachting and sailing and the
patroness of sailors in southern Spain is the Virgin del Carmen. I am very devoted to
her."
-Antonio Banderas
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