What’s In A Name: Jesus Velasquez

This is part fourteen in our series of articles examining the meanings behind the names of characters on True Blood. For previous articles looking at Sookie, Eric, Alcide, Tara, Bill, Arlene, Lafayette, Sam, Pam, Crystal, Russell, Sophie-Anne, the Bellefleur family & Hallow Stonebrook click here.

Jesus Velasquez

Will Jesus prove to be Lafayette's salvation?

What seems like simply a very ethnic name at first becomes more and more intriguing as we learn more about the character. Jesus is, of course, the Latin-Greek translation of the Hebrew name for Jesus Christ. In this case the Spanish pronunciation is used, and it is extremely popular in Latin cultures. The name comes from the Hebrew “Yehoshua”, which is our modern day “Joshua”, and means “God is salvation.” At the end of last season, we saw Jesus begin to introduce Lafayette to the occult, and this season Jesus will draw him in even further. Will Lafayette be tempted by what might look like salvation and deliverance?

Velasquez is also a common Latin surname, derived from “Velasco”, the Basque word for “crow”. In North America the crow is often used as a symbol of death; however, many cultures around the world view the crow as a messenger from God/the gods and as connected to the sun. With the glimpses we’ve had of True Blood season 4 so far, both meanings may be relevant to this character. We know that necromancy – the raising of the dead – is a major plotpoint this season, and it’s possible a crow will be involved either symbolically or literally. The character could also be a conduit for passing messages from whatever power is behind the witches, fulfilling that mythology.

Salvation, death, messages from the gods – it looks like Jesus Velasquez has the potential to be a major player this season.