It’s Peguero Jean Philippe, thank you very much
By Jay Hipps · April 26, 2008
Long-time fans of MLS will recall the early days of the league, when the powers that be decided the game clock needed to run backwards from 45:00 so as not to confuse us American sports fans as to the length of each half. It wasn’t the only thing they had backwards in those days, nor would it be the last thing.Take, for example, the newest Earthquake, Peguero Jean Philippe. Yes, that’s right — Peguero Jean Philippe. Despite the fact that MLS has referred to him as “Jean Philippe Peguero” since he joined the Rapids in 2004, it turns out that everyone has had it exactly backwards: his first name is “Peguero” and his last name is “Jean Philippe.” He’s still listed incorrectly in the MLS all-time player register. Only the eagle eye of Jed Mettee, the Quakes’ director of broadcasting and communications, spotted the error. (Mettee also reports that Jean Phillippe goes by either Pedro or JP among the team.)Bar bet alert: This error could make Jean Philippe the first MLS player to have his first name on the back of his shirt. So sorry, Herculez Gomez, but Jean Philippe did it first. (Readers, let us know if we’re mistaken here. The only other MLS player we can think of who may have had his first name on his back was Branco, but Wikipedia says that his real name is Cláudio Ibrahim Vaz Leal.
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I really enjoy Hanley’s insightful game previews. You can check out my game preview for Sunday at http://americansoccerreader.com/2008/04/26/clipped-wings-quakes-vs-red-bulls-pregame/
Go Quakes!
Jay, I’m curious to know why Jed is convinced it’s Peguero Jean Philippe, not the other way around. I’ve looked around, and I see it both ways, even on JPP’s own MySpace page. Even the Haitian soccer site, foutbol.com shows it as “Jean Philippe Peguero” in the headline and then the other way around in the description.
This is my theory: Jean Philippe is his given name and Peguero is his family name. Why? Peguero pops up as a family name in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, but I haven’t seen it referenced as a given name (except sometimes for JPP himself). And of course names like Jean Philippe are common French given names.
So why does Peguero sometimes appear first and sometimes last? I think (and again this is just a theory) that among Haitians there can be a certain looseness about whether the family name appears first or last. It’s whatever you feel like or based on some context.
If this theory is correct, then “first name” and “last name” don’t necessarily have the same meaning in Haiti that they do in the US. The important thing is what is the given name and what is the family name. And my guess is that “Peguero” is his family name and “Jean Philippe” is his given name. Assuming that’s the case, and we “Americanize” his name so that given name is first and family name is last, then he should be known as “Jean Philippe Peguero”.
So what is the correct name ? It would be nice to know.
JazzyJ, there’s been a considerable amount of time devoted to this topic behind the scenes in the Quakes’ media department, and the word I have is that Peguero is the first name and Jean Philippe is the last name.
The other two Brazilians who played for the Metrostars when Carlos Alberto Perreira had their first names on their shirts: GUIDO Alvez Pereira Neto and JOAO LUIZ Ferreira Baptista. That was 1997.
Maybe there was someone in 1996 who would precede them.
Apparently his surname is Peguero but he puts his given name second, like Asian names. Most Haitians speak Haitian Creole, not French. Although it is a French based language it is simplified and quite different grammatically from French. One web site reported a belief by some that it is a language that “has no rules”. And since “Jean Philippe” describes Peguero, and since French adjectives generally follow nouns, his methodology actually makes more sense, no? South Korean Hong Myong-Bo was listed in MLS as Hong Myong-Bo, not Myong-Bo Hong. His surname is Hong.
Paul, that’s what I figured. His surname is most likely Peguero but he chooses to (at least at times) put it first. IMO in the United States we should follow a GivenName Surname convention to avoid confusion (in the same manner that Japan’s Suzuki Ichiro becomes Ichiro Suzuki in the states).
That’s good info, Haig. OK — Peguero was not the first player in MLS with his first name on his jersey.
hey,bro can i have u come for my presentation on march 31st bcuz the class said that i said that ”i am an only child”.thanks bro.