Origin of the name Pele

The Brazilian great Pele who died at 82 last week was named Edson Arantes Nascimento. Pele was an alias which has stuck with him throughout his life. There have been so many accounts given of the origin of the name Pele.

Here is the account of the origin of the name given by the man himself.

‘I have no idea where the name came from or who started it, because it has no meaning in Portuguese- or any other language, as far as I know. I have been back to Bauru (his birth place) many times, and have asked all my old friends from those days, but they also have no clue as to its origin or exactly when it started. They say it just began one day and after that it stuck because it seemed to fit, whatever that means. At the same time though, I know that I hated it and it was the cause of many fights at school. I must have lost most of them because the name stuck.
‘One friend said it may have been given me inadvertently by one of the many Turks who lived in Bauru. They ran many of the businesses and some lived near us. According to this friend, he thought it possible that whenever I’d accidentally touch the ball with my hands, they would say, “Pe –le”, meaning “foot” in Portuguese and possibly “stupid” in Turkish; or maybe what they considered “stupid” in our language. Another story had it that there was once a famous player in Minas called “Bele” and that when I was a child trying to say his name, it came out “Pele”. The truth is I don’t remember ever trying to say “Bele”. I have no idea where the name Pele came from. All I know is that from the time I was nine or so, I was Pele to everyone I know, except to my family who continue to call me Dico to this day
‘Names, of course, are the cheapest things around, so even the most poverty-stricken Brazilian can afford to be generous with them. And he is. He is equally generous with nicknames possibly for the same reason, and very few of the nicknames have any meaning. “Dico” is a common nickname for Edson, although I would not be surprised to discover ten other nicknames for the same name. Nor do I know why Zoca was the nickname my brother earned when his baptised name was Jair. I sometimes have a strong feeling that nicknames- especially short nicknames- were either invented or at least encouraged, by radio announcers. A Brazilian radio announcer, describing an important football game, sounds like a hysterical machine gun with the stutters, gone mad. It helps him a good deal, of course, to have players called Pele, Didi, Vava or Pepe, of course. I can hardly picture a radio announcer using the full imaginative range of the average Brazilian father in his broadcast:
‘….Edson Arantes do Nascimento receives the ball from Sebastiao da Silva Tenoric Texeira Araujo and passes it to Valdemar Joao Mendes de Morais Filho, who dribbles it past Arthur Ribeiro Carvalho Jose Brito to pass it to Ruy Moreira Acacio Guimaraes, who head it …
The game would be half over and the crowd all going out for a beer before he finished describing one move’

Culled from Pele’s autobiography: My Life and the Beautiful Game