Coconuts are named after a Spanish bogeyman
Portuguese sailors thought the three dimples on a coconut shell looked like the hairy face of El Coco, the monster Iberian parents invoked to scare children to sleep, so they named the fruit after him. Nearly every culture has its own bogeyman, and many carry a sack.
The bogeyman, or boogeyman in North America, is a mythical figure grown-ups invoke to frighten children into behaving. English speakers have used the word since the 15th century, though the stories are surely older. It may come from the Middle English bugge or bogge, meaning a terrifying spectre or scarecrow, and it is related to boggart and bugbear, a bear-like demon said to eat small children. Apparent cousins include the Scots bogle, the Irish púca and the Cornish bucca.
There is no single look. Descriptions often mention a dark, shapeshifting form with claws or sharp teeth, and most versions are spirits, though some have horns, hooves or an insect-like body. Because the idea is so widespread, pinning down an origin is hard; in England it was first tied to the mischievous or malicious hobgoblins of the 16th century.
Iberia and Latin America favour the Sack Man, who stuffs naughty children into a bag, known in Spanish as el hombre del saco and in Portuguese as o homem do saco; colonists carried him across the Atlantic, and Bulgaria has its own sack-carrying Torbalan. Spanish lullabies warning that El Coco will come if a child stays awake date back to the 17th century. Among Mexican-Americans El Cucuy is a small humanoid with glowing red eyes lurking under beds or in closets. In Brazil the Cuca appears as a female alligator-woman or an old lady with a sack who might turn disobedient children into soup.
Elsewhere the variety is striking. Around the central and eastern Mediterranean children are warned of the babau; in Italy he is l'uomo nero, a tall man in a black coat and hood, and parents may knock under the table to announce his arrival. German folklore has dozens of regional figures, including the Butzemann, which may be related to the English word. Albania's Lubia is a many-headed female demon whose heads regrow when cut off, like the Greek hydra.
Source: Bogeyman
