Last modified: 2015-01-03 by peter hans van den muijzenberg
Keywords: names | san christos | san doremi | san monique |
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Though not a flag matter, the names of the fictional entities occasionally lead to comments from those studying fictional flags as well. This pages serves as a way to keep the flag-related pages free from such off-topic comments, yet provide a way to note interesting oddities about said names.
Where do Americans such as Allen and Europeans such as Hergé
get the idea from that Latin American countries have names like San Cocho (beef stew) and San Dia (watermelon)?
Certainly not from Dominican Republic or El Salvador!
Juan Jose Morales, 19 Januari 2013
That's thought too big: Santo Domingo and especially San Salvador. Most writers don't really want an entire country; they merely want a city with just enough land around it to create not-in-the-city locations.
But by now, this has become a kind of meme; people don't create San names to match
existing real Latin American locations, but to match previous fictional locations.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 19 Januari 2013
Such countries are fictional indeed! There are no Hispanic nations with names of saints, such
as the San Marcos of Bananas; the only two that come
a little close are the Dominican Republic, capital Santo Domingo,
and El Salvador, capital San Salvador.
Juan Jose Morales, 7 December 2011
More to the point, it's a fictional extrapolation on the Hispanic nature of Central and South America; the frequency of the use of "San" names for their capital cities (include also Costa Rica, Chile, and even Puerto Rico); and the use of "Saint" (English), "Saint-" (French), and "Sint" (Dutch) country and territory names in the Carribean. Combine those elements and as soon as you say that a country is called "San Ignacio" many people will instantly think "Caribbean" - despite the fact that the only country in the world to be "San" anything is in the Apennines of southern Europe.
As such, it's a useful concept that provides the necessary perception
about a fictional country. It's no less acceptable than having a
black and white flag with a green crescent and star on it and
instantly thinking "Middle East" despite no country using a green
crescent and star.
James Dignan, 8 December 2011
In the episode called "By the Death of a Child", Dr. Quincy was
sent to the Republic of San Christos (which seems a little bit like an
oxymoron).
A.P. De New, 3 June 2006
As the fictional Republic's name is Spanish (translates as Saint Christ(ian),
as far as I can ascertain), it should be written as San Cristos (sans the 'h').
'Ch' in Spanish is spoken much like that in English; the /kh/ in Christ is reduced down
to a /k/ in Cristos — its Spanish form — thus the
missing 'h'!
Robert Wheelock, 4 June 2006
Some of the adventures of Bert & friends are set in the imaginary Central American
state of San Doremi, showing a bar of music on the national flag!
Jan Mertens, 23 September 2008
Must be a punning flag — music for the country name "do-re mi" («the
first three notes»); "San" being, again, a misused saintly honorific
in Spanish, staple for naming fictional Latin American locations.
António Martins, 7 December 2011
"San Monique" is a senseless pseudo-Spanish name, using the honorific
for consonant-name-initial saints with a female French name (it would
be Santa Mónica in proper Spanish) — one more to join other ill-named
vexilliferous fictional hispanic countries..
António Martins, 17 November 2011
The term "figurated country" refers a fictional country, which is based in a real country,
usually a country that the director of the film wants to criticize but dares not call
by its real name. Petrovia is a figurated country based on
post-Soviet Russia.
Jason Saber, 1 August 2013
