Actually, brad_d, it has to an extent.
I think it has to do with ones level of fame/talent, though. “Rubinho” is certainly a popular name, often used as a nick for Barrichello (it means “little Rubens”, I think). A quick google of “Felipinho” gives 31 hits relating to Massa, and there’s 8 hits for “Enriquinho”. Maybe I’m looking at the wrong nicknames, I dunno. 
Ayrton Senna da Silva was widely known to his Brazilian fans as Senninha. I think Senninha was also a comic character at some point.
[nitpick]
actually the correct word for nickname in Brazilian Portuguese is ‘apelido’
[/nitpick]
But, all in all, the use of ‘Apelidos’ is really widespread in Brazil, probably because of the long names in use in that country. For instance, my brother-in-law has the given name “Oricivaldo Balieiro De Paula”, but goes by the name of “Balieiro” or “Rico”. My sister-in-law has the given name “Lucirene Balieiro De Paula” but everyone in the family and everyone who knows her calls her “Pretinha” (which means ‘little black one’, mainly because she was the youngest of 8 children and had the darkest complexion).
Most popular nicknames use either the diminutive endings -nha (for women) or -nho (for men) or the augmentative ending -ão. In fact the player now known as ‘Ronaldo’ was originally known as ‘Ronaldinho’. For this reason some people refer to the player now known as ‘Ronaldinho’ (the one with the Jery-Curls) as ‘Ronaldinho Gaucho’.
For other examples of these nicknames look at ‘Juninho’ (diminutive of Junior), ‘Rubinho’ (diminutive of Rubens), ‘Felipão’ (Big Phil), Luizão etc.
Other nicknames point out the persons ethnic or geographic origins (see ‘Ronaldinho Gaucho’ or ‘Alemão’ or ‘Juninho Paulista’). Others again are simply nicknames left over from childhood (probably because a brother or sister couldn’t pronounce the real name. Witness: ‘Kaká’, ‘Dida’)
These ‘apelidos’ are definitely used all over Brazil (not just for football players). Just look through any Brazilian newspaper, and more than half the people will be mentioned using their ‘apelido’.
Sometimes, I’m really glad they are used too. Look at the first names of my brothers-in-law:
Olavo
Olivar
Odivaldo
Oricivaldo
Odilson
:eek:
and my wife and sisters-in-law:
Luciene
Lucilene
Lucirene
:eek:
Now try keeping those names straight without using ‘apelidos’
Gotcha (as in ‘I understand’)… I used apodo 'cos my wife says that in Spanish (or sobrenombre), and doesn’t speak Portuguese.
Thanks for apelido, too! I’ll tell that to my wife, and she’ll think it’s apellido (surname), and we’ll prove that the confusion goes both ways!
Balthisar:
that’s pretty funny, because Brazilian Portuguese for surname is actually “sobrenome”. There doesn’t seem to be a seperate word for firstname. This is simply called “nome”.