But in the bit you quoted I was referring to what someone else said upthread (checks: thelurkinghorror) about Jeronimo as a Brazilian name, and about thinking it was Spanish. It is… both, with different diacritics that get lost in Angliziced spellings.
Yes, but try telling that to English/US speakers. 
Similarly, I know a few Yusefs (and spelling variants). Some of them were Muslim (yes, they exist in Latin America), some are not.
Yeah. Omar isn’t considered strange in the US. I’ll give you the others though.
Perhaps it was the region I was in, though, when I mentioned those names, they were surprised about them (or perhaps it was just post- 9/11 thing?)…
Ahh, got it. My mistake.
If you’re implying that it has something to do with the Soviet Union, I don’t think it’s as simple as that. Names like Vladimir and Ivan have been common in Mexico and Central America for a while, too.
Yes, I get the impression that naming patterns (in most languages) are very country-specific, but for that very reason the only thing one can generalize about “Hispanic” names is that you have more distinct things influencing name choice, because there are so many more different Spanish-speaking countries in the Americas. The coincidence mentioned in the OP is just that–coincidence. Nothing is “happening.”
I don’t know. I was specifically thinking about prominent people with those names, e.g. Carlos the Jackal. I certainly don’t think that Russian names are common per se in some countries. I agree that Latin American countries are very different in their name selection; Spanish names predominate, but other names vary.
I’m pretty sure it’s a Communist, sympathy-for-the-Soviet-Union type of thing, even when it happens in Mexico, Central America, etc. There are Communists there too, of course.
Sometimes, but not necessarily; it’s gone on long enough that some current Vladimirs and Ivans are named after their uncle, rather than after a member of the USSR’s Communist Party, there are enough prominent Russian poets, writers and musicians to provide names for people who simply happen to like their work, and there is quite a few people in Latin America who happen to be of Russian/Slavic descent. My coworker Ivan with the -off lastname didn’t get the Ivan from any commies, his great-grandparents fled from the commies.
I didn’t know this! Ignorance fought, thank you.
Such as Mexican journalist, Elena Poniatowska.
The Russian names… It seems if it is a name associated with one of the main leaders (Vladimir, Lenin, Trotsky), it may be somewhat politically motivated. But for others like Ivans (and Natalias, Tatiana, Tanias, etc.) that I’ve met and known, it was not a political-type name.
Btw, Carlos was the name of some Spanish kings. It’s one of the traditional common names in Spanish.