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Rodrigo became known throughout Spain as El Cid Campeador ( English: My lord, the champion). The words El Cid come from a word from a Spanish dialect of Arabic, sidi, meaning sir or lord, a title of respect. The title campeador was granted by his Spanish admirers:
El Cid was pronounced /el tsið/ in mediaeval Castilian, but /el θið/) in modern standard Spanish, the c like the th in "thin" and the d like the th in "then".
The exact date of the Cid's birth is unknown, and is still debated among historians of medieval Spain today. Generally, however, the Cid's birth, considering his participation in the Battle of Graus, ( 1063), is said to have taken place between 1043 and 1045. In any case, however, we do know that the Cid's father was called Diego Laínez, and was part of the minor gentry, or infanzones , of Castile, fighting in several battles. Despite the fact in later years the peasants would consider him a hero, his mother's family was aristocraticAristocracy is a form of government in which rulership is in the hands of an "upper class" known as aristocrats . The Greek origins of the word aristocracy imply the meaning of "rule by the best". This inevitably means those with the power to hold wealth,, however, his relatives were not major court officials: documents show that El Cid's paternal grandfather, Lain Nunez, only confirmed five documents of Ferdinand I'sFerdinand I of Castile El Magno or "the Great," (d. 1065), son of Sancho III of Navarre, was put in possession of Castile in 1028 with his father's backing, on the murder of the last Count, as the heir of his mother Elvira, daughter of a previous count of; his maternal grandfather, Rodrigo Alvarez, certified only two of Sancho II's ; the Cid's own father confirmed only one. This seems to indicate that the Cid's family was not comprised of major court officials.
One famous legend about the Cid is how he acquired his famous war-horse, the famed white stallionA stallion is an uncastrated male horse after reaching the age of sexual maturity, usually between two and three years of age. Babiecafieldofstars. com/19/el-cid-2-quarter-. jpg According to several sources, Babieca was the steed of the Spanish military leader El Cid in the tenth and eleventh centuries. Several stories exist about the Cid and Babieca. Babieca, the Spanish word for "simp. According to this story, Rodrigo's godfather, Pedro El Grande, was a monk at a CarthusianThe Carthusians are a Christian religious order founded by St Bruno in 1084. There exist both Carthusian monks and nuns. They follow their own Rule, called the Statutes rather than the Rule of St Benedict (as is often erroneously reported) and combine ere monasteryA monastery is the habitation of monks. Originally: a hermit's cell. Christian monasteries are also called abbey, priory, charterhouse, friary, and preceptory The habitation of nuns is also called a convent. The communal life of a monastery is called ceno, and gave El Cid a coming-of-age gift of his pick of a horse from an Andalusian herd. El Cid picked a horse that his godfather thought was a weak, poor choice causing the monk to exclaim "Babieca!" (stupid!) Hence, it became the name of El Cid's horse. Today, Babieca appears in multiple works about the Cid.