baptopatro

Two roots, no glue, no surprises. Bapti at rank 2,578 is to baptise; patro at rank 141 is a father. Stick them together and you have the man who stands for a child at its baptism. Esperanto compounds by simple juxtaposition with the modifier first, and this one keeps the linking -o- of bapto because baptpatro would be three consonants in a row. That is the only rule at work: the vowel goes in when the word would otherwise be hard to say.

The whole set comes free. Baptopatrino is a godmother, baptofilo a godson, baptofilino a goddaughter, baptogepatroj the godparents together. The bapti page lists the rest of the ceremony vocabulary: bapto the act, baptujo the font, baptonomo the Christian name, which is the ordinary Esperanto word for a first name once you are in the religious register at all.

The register is churchy and the word knows it. A baptopatro is a role in a rite, not a family relation, so the word carries the church with it in a way that English godfather has partly shed. If you want the secular version - a mentor, a patron, the person who backs your career - Esperanto says patrono or protektanto, and those are different words. And the criminal sense that a certain film gave the English word does not travel: an Esperanto text about the mafia says mafiestro or bando-ĉefo, never baptopatro.

One small pronunciation note. Four syllables, bap-to-pa-tro, stress on the second-to-last as always, so bap-to-PA-tro. The compound does not shift the stress off its own last root, which is the general rule and one of the reasons long Esperanto compounds stay readable.