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miklii · 4 days ago

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Name Etymologies: 2025 MotoGP grid

Meanings and origins of the first and last names of the whole grid! Not sure why I spent so much time researching this but it was fun and I hope some of it might be interesting to people :)

Notes: ordered by rider number. * is an addition or an alternative that is less likely or more of a guess but i wanted to include anyway. i did use peoples full government names (e.g. both family names for the spanish riders) where i could easily find them because it gave me more to work with lol. theyre not always widely used so. pinch of salt. the small text below some of the sections have notes on some cultural/linguistic differences; ive said some stuff about my sources below the cut at the end. i tried my best to be thorough and get to the most likely meanings. some credit goes to @hotmessmaxpress 's series of edits around name meanings for inspiring me to think more about this!

5. johann zarco - JOHANN: german. a dimunitive of johannes, from latin ioannes, ultimately from biblical hebrew yohanan (a contracted form of the hebrew phrase yhwh khanon ["god is gracious/merciful/compassionate"]). - ZARCO: spanish. from arabic zarqa ["of light blue colour"], possibly used to refer to people with blue eyes (x).

10. luca marini - LUCA: italian. from latin lucas from biblical ancient greek loukas, a diminutive of either lucanus/loukanós ["from lucania"] or lucius/loúkios (from the latin verb lucere ["to shine"] and ultimately lux/lucis ["light"]). - MARINI: italian. from marino, from latin marīnus [both meaning "marine, of or pertaining to the sea"]. marīnī is a genitive inflection of marīnus, so the name could've also initially meant something like "of marīnus" as in son of, or house of.

12. maverick viñales ruiz - MAVERICK: english. originally a surname, likely derived from latin mauritius ["a moor, dark complexion"]. developed a meaning of "an unbranded animal", and then "an unconventional, controversial or rulebreaking person", from 19th century texan samuel maverick who refused to brand his cattle. - VIÑALES: spanish. possibly toponymic from the name of a town in galicia (from viña ["vineyard"] with the addition of the galician suffix -les); or otherwise derived from viña. *could be a spanish (castillian) transliteration of the catalan name vinyals, from vinya [also "vineyard"]. - RUIZ: spanish. a patronymic meaning "son of ruy". ruy is an old variant of rodrigo, from gothic roderik ["famous ruler"].

in spain two family names are used; the first (paternal) is the "main" one and the second (maternal) is often left out, especially in english, but legally they are both part of the name.

20. fabio quartararo - FABIO: italian, spanish and portuguese. from latin family name fabius, possibly derived from faba ["bean"]. - QUARTARARO: italian (sicilian). probably derived from italian quartara [a sicilian earthenware vessel similar to an amphora] combined with the common sicilian name suffix -aro. *could possibly instead derive from quarto from the latin name quartus ["fourth"; a name given to fourth sons] but this is less likely.

21. franco morbidelli - FRANCO: italian, spanish and portuguese. from latin francus ["frankish, french"], ultimately from the frankish/proto-germanic frankō ["a frank" or "javelin, spear"]. franco also later came to mean "free (man)" and "brave, candid, frank" in medieval italian due to associations with the franks. - MORBIDELLI: italian. diminutive of morbido ["soft, tender, docile"] (originally from latin morbidus ["sickly, diseased"] but with an evolved meaning). *it may be a occupational surname of confectioners in central italy who sold sweet biscuits known as morbidelli at peasant festivals (morbidelli may also refer to a type of cheese in more northern areas of italy).

23. enea bastianini - ENEA: italian. from latin aeneas, from ancient greek aineias, the name of a trojan hero who was a son of aphrodite and the legendary ancestor of the romans (unknown origin but traditionally tied to ainos ["praise, story"]). - BASTIANINI: italian. a regional diminutive variation (mostly central italian and the south of emilia-romagna) of the patronymic bastiano, an italian shortening of the name sebastiano (ultimately from latin augustus ["majestic, venerable"]).

25. raúl fernández gonzález - RAÚL: spanish. probably via old french raoul, from germanic ratolf/radulf (formed from rad ["counsel, advice"] and wulf ["wolf"]). - FERNÁNDEZ: spanish. patronymic meaning "son of fernando". fernando is the spanish variant of ferdinand, itself coming from gothic. the original name probably had proto-germanic elements meaning "peace" (or "journey") and "daring". - GONZÁLEZ: spanish. patronymic meaning "son of gonzalo". gonzalo is the spanish descendant of latin gundisalvus, from a germanic name, composed of gunda ["war, battle"] and an unknown element which was latinised to salvus ["safe, healthy"].

the acute accents (e.g. ú, á) in spanish denote stress/emphasis in the word and not a difference in the sound of the vowel, and they're only needed if the word is stressed differently than the standard rules or to differentiate homonyms; e.g. in raúl, the accent makes sure that you pronounce it with two syllables.

33. brad binder - BRAD: english. diminutive or clipping of a number of given names, usually bradley (from a toponymic surname composed of old english brād ["broad"] and lēah ["meadow/clearing"]). - BINDER: german. probably from a shortening of an occupational name such as fassbinder ["cooper, barrel binder"] or buchbinder ["book binder"].

35. somkiat chantra (สมเกียรติ จันทรา) - SOMKIAT: thai. romanisation of สมเกียรติ, formed from สม [som; "suitable, in line with, appropriate"], from sanskrit सम [samá; "same, like"], and เกียรติ [kiat; "honour, fame, respect"] from sanskrit कीर्ति [kirti; "good report, fame"]. - CHANTRA: thai. romanisation of จันทรา, form of จันทร [chanthra; "(the) moon, monday"], from sanskrit चन्द्र [candrá; "bright, shining, moon" (also the name of the hindu god of the moon)].

disclaimer for my lack of knowledge of thai, sanskrit, or thai naming practices which might make this a less nuanced conclusion. i've used the thai royal institute romanisations which seem to be more standard or at least what the standard romanisation of his name is based on.

36. joan mir mayrata - JOAN: catalan and occitan. from latin ioannes, ultimately meaning "god is gracious" (see zarco's section). - MIR: catalan. likely a variant/patronymic of catalan given name miró, via germanic miro/mironis, or from germanic given name mir; both ultimately from gothic mêreis and/or old high german mâri [both meaning "famous, illustrious"](x). - MAYRATA: catalan (mallorcan). alternative spelling of mairata, a mallorcan equivalent of catalan marata, a toponym, likely ultimately descended from arabic al-misrat ["the limit between two territories"] (via old latinisation meserata, probably including a rebracketing of l'almeserat to la meserat and consequent mistaken addition of feminine suffix -ata) (x).

37. pedro acosta sánchez - PEDRO: spanish and portuguese. descendant of latin petrus, from ancient greek pétros, a masculine name from petra ["stone, rock"] as a greek translation for the biblical (invented) aramaic name kepha of the same meaning. - ACOSTA: spanish and catalan. either from latin ad-costa or from catalan a costa [both meaning "on/at the coast"]. *possibly also could derive from a rebracketing of spanish da costa ["from the coast"] i.e. it being misinterpreted as d'acosta which then led to acosta being used as its own word. - SÁNCHEZ: spanish. patronymic meaning "son of sancho". sancho was possibly borrowed from the basque santxo, ultimately from latin sanctius/sanctus ["sacred, holy, saintly" or "saint, virtuous person"].

42. álex rins navarro - ÁLEX: spanish. diminutive of spanish alejandro, from latin alexander, from greek alexandros ["defender of man"; alternatively "one who assists/helps (man/men)" or "one who repels (enemies)"]. - RINS: catalan. likely toponymic from aragonian and catalonian place name rin/rins, from rīnos, variant of celtic/gaulish rēnos ["river, stream"]. *rin is also the catalan name for the rhine. - NAVARRO: spanish, portuguese and italian. "one from navarra" (a province in spain whose name comes from the basque place name nafarroa, either derived from basque nabar ["brown/multicoloured"] or spanish/basque nava/naba ["valley, plain"]).

43. jack miller - JACK: english. diminutive of john, ultimately from hebrew yohanan ["god is gracious"] (see zarco's section). - MILLER: english and (south) german. occupational surname of someone who owns or works at a (flour) mill.

49. fabio di giannantonio - FABIO: italian, spanish and portuguese. ultimately probably from faba ["bean"] (see quartararo's section). - di GIANNANTONIO: italian. patronymic meaning "son of giannantonio". giannantonio is a combination of the given names gianni (diminutive of giovanni, from hebrew yohanan, ultimately meaning "god is gracious" (see zarco's section)) and antonio (from latin antōnius [unknown origin]).

54. fermín aldeguer mengual - FERMÍN: spanish. from latin name firminus, derivative of firmius, from firmus ["strong, firm, steadfast"]. - ALDEGUER: catalan. likely from germanic name aldeger/aldiger, related to old high german adalger (composed of adal ["noble, respected"] and ger ["spear"]). - MENGUAL: catalan. clipping of armengual, variant of ermengol, possibly from germanic name ermingaud, from old high german irmin ["whole, strong"] and gard ["enclosure, yard, protection"].

63. francesco bagnaia - FRANCESCO: italian. from latin franciscus ["of the franks, frenchman"] (an earlier form than francus>franco). - BAGNAIA: italian. a regional variation (specifically from lazio, viterba or rome) of bagni. likely a toponym derived from town names containing bagno ["bath"], or a occupational name from e.g. an owner or worker at a bathhouse.

72. marco bezzecchi - MARCO: italian. from latin mārcus, a form of marticus (a theophoric name refering to mars, the roman god of war and military power, so can be interpreted as "of mars", "consecrated to mars", "devoted to mars" etc). - BEZZECCHI: italian, specifically from emilia. probably related to bezzi/bezzo, more common northern italian names (either toponymic from towns called bezzo, or derived from the same word which was the name of an old silver venetian coin). possibly with the addition of a suffix derived from the tuscan name ending -ecci. *there are records from the early 20th century that refer to "italianisation" of immigrant surnames; bezzecchi was an italianised version of bezek and similar (multiple slavic and turkic names with varying meanings). which is probably not where his name comes from but i thought that was interesting (x)

73. álex márquez i alentà - ÁLEX: spanish. ultimately "defender of man"; or "one who assists/helps (man/men)" or "one who repels (enemies)" (see rins' section). - MÁRQUEZ: spanish. patronymic meaning "son of marcos". marcos is the spanish descendant of latin mārcus ["of mars"] (see bezzecchi's section). - ALENTÀ: catalan. possibly related to catalan alentar ["encourage, breathe, animate" or "recuperate"].

catalan names have the same order as spanish but some have a connecting i between the two names which is sometimes omitted (especially when speaking castilian/spanish). i followed catalan sources for which of the riders names are often written with the i.

79. ai ogura (小椋藍 - "ogura ai") - AI: japanese. kun reading of the traditional chinese character 藍 (lán) ["blue, indigo"]. - OGURA: japanese. formed of o, japanese kun reading of the chinese character 小 (xiǎo) ["small, less"], and kura, japanese kun reading of the chinese 椋 (liáng) ["starling" (or sometimes the plant "dogwood")].

these characters (kanji) can have multiple different pronunciations (readings) and therefore represent multiple different words/meanings. 'kun' readings of the characters are based on meaning rather than on the original chinese pronunciation. japanese names are written with the family name first, but most japanese people swap this around when in european/non-japanese settings.

88. miguel falcão de oliveira - MIGUEL: spanish and portuguese. variant of latin michael, from hebrew mikha'el ["who is like god?" (not denoting someone who is godlike but asking the rhetorical question with the presumed answer of 'no one')]. - FALCÃO: portuguese. "falcon, hawk". - (de) OLIVEIRA: portuguese. toponym from oliveira ["olive tree"]; from oliva ["olive"] with suffix -eira (used to form the name of a plant from the fruit it produces).

for portuguese names it's the opposite to spanish; the first family name is the maternal, second is the paternal (the one often used on its own). the preposition de ["from/of"] is part of the name following it (e.g. the name is "de Oliveira") but is dropped in addressing someone and (often) in non-portuguese settings.

89. jorge martín almoguera - JORGE: spanish and portuguese. from latin geōrgius, ultimately from ancient greek geōrgós ["farmer"]. - MARTÍN: spanish. probably via old french martin, from latin mārtīnus ["of mars"] (see bezzecchi's section). - ALMOGUERA: spanish. probably toponym of e.g. almoguera in guadalajara or almaguer in toledo; both either from arabic al-magara ["(the) cave, grotto"] or al-magid ["(the) irrigation canal"].

93. marc márquez i alentà - MARC: catalan and french. descendant/variant of latin mārcus ["of mars"] (see bezzecchi's section). - MÁRQUEZ: spanish. patronymic, also ultimately ["of mars"] (see álex márquez's section). - ALENTÀ: catalan. possibly "encourage, breathe, animate" or "recuperate" (see álex márquez's section).

SOURCES:

a lot of the meanings are from deep dives through many sources trying to untangle what my best judgement of the most likely etymology is so i apologise for the minimal citations lol. it was also reliant on my chaotic mix of language knowledge so there is not a clear english thought process for all of them. i'll list just a few specific sources that might interest people.

for the italian surnames, i used this website as a starting point (it also has demographic information about where in italy the names are most common which is interesting)

the catalan ones were especially hard to nail down due to the lack of mainstream internet resources and my own minimal catalan. i found some really good sources for catalan vocab, i tried not to rely too much on google translate bc google translate literally cannot be trusted. it actually turned out to be really interesting. main starting points: - optimot, an online directory of dictionary entries for catalan words run by the catalan government (generalitat) - idescat, searchable statistical information on surnames recorded in catalonia, also from the generalitat - institut d'estudis catalans (iec; institute of catalan studies) dictionary of catalan, valencian and balear (x and x) - oncat (onomasticon cataloniae) and decat (diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana), etymological dictionaries from the iec (oncat is specifically for place names and surnames). very thorough but a little difficult to navigate/get to the bottom of things lol

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miklii · 4 days ago

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Name Etymologies: 2025 MotoGP wildcard, test and substitute riders

part one (2025 full-time riders) here.

Notes: ordered by number. my process usually uses a lot of sources in lots of different languages that i try and deduce the likliest meanings from, so i'm sorry for not citing things. the part one post has more notes/links about some sources. if any of these are from your languages/cultures and i've made a mistake or you know more detail, please let me know!

04. andrea dovizioso - ANDREA: italian. from ancient greek name andréas derived from andreios ["manly, courageous"] (ultimately from aner ["man"]). - DOVIZIOSO: italian. from adjective dovizioso ["rich, wealthy"], ultimately from dovizia ["abundance, wealth"], from latin divitia, from dives ["rich, favoured by the gods, blessed"].

6. stefan bradl - STEFAN: german (among others). germanic and slavic variant of latin name stephanus, from ancient greek stéphanos ["crown, that which encircles"] (ultimately from ancient greek stépho ["i encircle"]). - BRADL: german (specifically bavarian dialect). probably from bavarian bratl/bradl, dialectal diminutive of noun braten ["(a) roast"; a roasted or oven-baked piece/joint of meat].

26. daniel pedrosa i ramal - DANIEL: spanish (among others). via ancient greek from hebrew daniyél ["god is my judge"]. - PEDROSA: spanish and portuguese. toponymic from spanish/portuguese pedroso/a ["rocky, stony"], from latin petrosus (from petra ["stone, rock"] + adjectival suffix -osus). *possibly from the catalan pedrosa, a colloquial name for both the plant burnt candytuft (aethionema saxatile) and the herb valerian, likely also both derived from the spanish pedroso (in the sense of a hardy plant that deals well with rocky soil) - RAMAL: catalan. likely toponymic from catalan/spanish ramal ["halter, branch (of e.g. a road, mountain range)"]

30. takaaki nakagami (中上貴晶; "nakagami takaaki") - NAKAGAMI: japanese. formed of 中 (naka; japanese kun reading of the chinese character zhōng ["middle, the inside of things"]) and 上 (kami; japanese kun reading of the chinese shàng ["above, upper, top"]) - TAKAAKI: japanese. formed of 貴 (taka; japanese nanori reading of the chinese guì ["precious, valuable"] and 晶 (aki; japanese nanori reading of the chinese jing ["clear, crystal"])

these characters (kanji) can have multiple different pronunciations (readings) and therefore represent multiple different words/meanings. kun readings are based on meaning rather than the chinese pronunciation; nanori readings are particular, non-standard pronunciations of the kanji and are usually only used for names

32. lorenzo savadori - LORENZO: italian and spanish. from latin name laurentius, from laurus ["laurel tree, laurels" (as in the crown of laurels given to victors)], either attributive, e.g. "one who wears a laurel wreath", or habitational via laurentum, an ancient town (whose name likely also comes from laurus) that stood in modern-day lazio. - SAVADORI: italian. likely mistaken/variant spelling of salvadori, a northern italian regional variant of salvatori, a patronymic form of the given name salvatore ["rescuer, saviour"], from latin salvātor ["saviour, one who saves/keeps from injury"], derivation of salvus ["safe, preserved, unhurt/healthy"]. likely adopted as a name (or given to foundlings) in honour of the title given to jesus.

35. cal crutchlow - CAL: english. short form of calvin (he was supposedly named after calvin "cal" rayborn); as a surname, a francisation (french-ification) of the latin family name calvinus, itself either an attributive from latin calvus ["hairless, bald"] or from a latinisation of picard and occitan/francitan name cauvin, from chauve [also "bald"]. - CRUTCHLOW: english. variant of critchlow/crichlow; likely toponymic from a place in england, e.g. croichlow fold in lancashire. ultimately likely either from middle english croch/crucche ["crutch, staff"] + lea/ley ["meadow, pasture"] or old english cros ["cross"] + leah ["woodland clearing"]. the second element "low" could be also from or have been confused with (i.e. in recording the name) the common english place name element -lowe, from old english hlāw ["hill, mound"].

37. augusto fernández guerra - AUGUSTO: spanish, italian and portuguese. from latin augustus, a title meaning "majestic, venerable". - FERNÁNDEZ: spanish. patronymic meaning "son of fernando". fernando is the spanish variant of ferdinand, itself coming from gothic. the original name probably had proto-germanic elements meaning "peace" (or "journey") and "daring". - GUERRA: spanish, italian, catalan and portuguese. from the germanic werra ["fight, hostility"], probably via latin guerra, ["war"]. as a surname, probably either occupational (e.g. a soldier), a nickname meaning "warlike, belligerent", or a clipping of a place name containing guerra/guera.

41. aleix espargaró i villà - ALEIX: catalan. from latin alexius (not alexander!), from ancient greek aléxios/álexis ["defender, helper"]. - ESPARGARÓ: catalan. possibly related to esparreguera ["asparagus"; also a toponym from a town near barcelona (x, x)], or some other derivation from the verb espargir ["to scatter/spread"]. - VILLÀ: catalan. likely from an older form of catalan vila/vilà ["town"/"town-dweller"] (the double l, possibly pronounced differently to the double l in modern catalan, which is not the same as the single l, remains in older names for places beginning with vila). alternatively from spanish (castillian) villa ["town, country house"] *catalan vilà can also mean "villain" or "rude, discourteous"

44. pol espargaró i villà - POL: catalan. variant of pau, from latin name paulus [originally meaning "little, small"]. - ESPARGARÓ: catalan. possibly from espargir ["to scatter/spread"] (see aleix's section). - VILLÀ: catalan. likely "town"/"town-dweller" (see aleix's section).

51. michele pirro - MICHELE: italian. variant of latin michael, from hebrew mikha'el ["who is like god?" (not denoting someone who is godlike but asking the rhetorical question with the presumed answer of 'no one')]. - PIRRO: italian. clipped patronymic from the male given name (i.e. di Pirro ["son of Pirro"], with the di ["of"] dropped), from the latin name of the greek ruler Pyrrhus, from greek pŭrrhós ["flame-coloured, yellowish red" or by extension "red-haired"].

87. remy gardner - REMY: french. variant of rémi. from a 6th century catholic saint from picardy, then part of roman gaul. the name is possibly a shortening of latin name remedius, from remedium ["remedy"] but he was more often referred to as remigius, a latin name from rēmex ["oarsman, rower"]. - GARDNER: english. variant of gardener; occupational name from garden (via anglo-norman from frankish gardin/gardo ["fence, enclosure, yard"]).

*it's unclear whether the original remi's name was - or was derived from - remedius or remigius, or whether these names were a subsequent latinisation of an older gaulish name of unknown origin. he supposedly signed his name - on latin documents - as both remedius and "remegius". it's so long ago that it's all a bit of a muddle. some people also claim that his name (and successively "remigius") came from the name of the rēmi (pronounced like reemi) tribe who lived in the area of reims, but this is probably unlikely.

94. jonas folger - JONAS: german, swedish, and dutch. from the greek name (ionas) of the biblical prophet jonah, from hebrew yoná ["dove" (or "pigeon" - hebrew does not make the distinction)]. - FOLGER: german. "follower"; agent noun of folger ["to follow, to comply"]. probably originally used as a name of someone who hunts/tracks (i.e. "follows") animals. *possibly instead a variant of old high german folk/folc/volk ["people, folk, warband"] with lenition (weakening) of k > g, used as a patronymic of either the short form of various germanic given names beginning with the element (e.g. volkmar [""]), or of folker/volker ["people's army, people's fighter"], from volk + heri ["army, warrior"]

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