Sweet names for a range of students

All in a Name – Valentin(o/a)

Valentino Tino gets lots of compliments on his special name.

ID Photo

Valentino “Tino” gets lots of compliments on his special name.

“A couple of people have said my name as Valentine,” said Valentino “Tino” Martinez, but that’s the price he has to pay for having such an unusual name. He even missed having a February birthday by two days, being born toward the end of January. Martinez likes his name “because it’s easy to say.”

Only one other student at Armijo has a first name that is similar, Valentin Vera Vera. Both Martinez and Vera are sophomores, and they have a few other things in common. Besides his older brother Salvador who was named after their father, Martinez has some siblings that he shares the campus with Emiliano, who is a junior, and his younger brother Adriano, who is an eighth grader at Crystal.

Vera, who was named after his father, also has some siblings in the school district – his older sister Camila is also a junior at Armijo and his younger brother Sebastian, who is a first grader at K.I. Jones.

Martinez and Vera have at least two other things in common. They share their second period class, Chem Earth in D-4 with Mr. Smith, and they both have their strongest grades in PE.

While these are the only two who have the first name related to the Valentine holiday, there are others on campus who have related middle names, including Martinez’s older brother whose middle name is actually Valentine. The Class of 2024 also has Omar Gomez, whose middle name is Valentino, the same middle name as freshman Anthony Mejia. Yandel Santiago also has the middle name Valentin.

Of all the people on campus that have hidden Valentine-related names, there is one girl, Alejandra Valentina Moreno, who is in the sophomore class.