Pelé in the sport. Pelé was born Edson Arantes do Nascimento on 23 October 1940, in Três Corações, Minas Gerais, Brazil, the son of Fluminense footballer Dondinho (born João Ramos do Nascimento) and Celeste Arantes. He was the elder of two siblings. He was named after the American inventor Thomas Edison. His parents decided to remove the "i" and call him "Edson", but there was a mistake on the birth certificate, leading many documents to show his name as "Edison", not "Edson", as he is called. He was originally nicknamed "Dico" by his family. He received the nickname "Pelé" during his
Francisco José do Nascimento and Culture, founded in 1999 in Fortaleza, was named after him. In 2017, Francisco's name was written into the ""Book of Steel" in the Tancredo Neves Pantheon of the Fatherland and Freedom, in Brasília. Francisco José do Nascimento Francisco José do Nascimento (April 15, 1839 — March 5, 1914), known as "Dragão do Mar" ("Sea Dragon") was a Brazilian pilot and abolitionist hero, who in 1881 led a strike in the port of Fortaleza, state of Ceará, refusing to transport enslaved black people to be sold in Rio de Janeiro and other Brazilian provinces. Francisco José do Nascimento was born