| • Science | • People | • Locations | • Timeline |
In Spanish-speaking countries, the name of the father is put before the name of the mother; these are then known as the apellido paterno ("paternal surname") and the apellido materno or segundo apellido (maternal or second surname).
When a woman marries, she may choose to drop her own maternal surname and adopts her husband's paternal surname, with "de" ("of") inserted between. Thus if Ángela López Sáenz marries Tomás Portillo Blanco, she may style herself Ángela López de Portillo. This convention, however, is more a social styling than an official renaming such as takes place in English-speaking countries: on official documents, she will still be identified by her two maiden surnames. In many areas, however, this tradition is now seen as an antiquated form of discrimination against women (the de can be read as implying ownership) and is consequently on the decline. A more formal version is Ángela López, Sra. de Portillo (" Sra. " is an abbreviation for " señora " (" Mrs., wife").
If, as is very common in Spanish-speaking families, they choose to perpetuate their forenames into the next generation, their children would be Tomás Portillo López and Ángela Portillo López.
The order rule means that the surnames of the female branch get lost as generations pass. If the female surname is especially prestigious or the combination is improper, the order may be altered. While Spain has recently introduced legal provisions to allow parents to freely decide the order of surnames, the overwhelming majority of Spaniards continue to follow the traditional pattern of father's first and mother's second. A case of improper combination would be the folk case of Mr. Laca marrying Miss Gamos. Laca Gamos sounds like la cagamos, "we shat on it", a very offensive phrase. They would name their children as Gamos Laca.
As is still the case with Catalan names (see below), the option exists to connect the two surnames by means of y ("and"): one well known example of this is José Ortega y Gasset. Thus, Tomás could choose to style himself Tomás Portillo y Blanco, albeit at the risk, in most of the contemporary world, of appearing affected or self-consciously following a slightly antiquated use.
The prevalence of this custom of using two surnames varies. For example, Argentina is a Spanish-speaking country, but most Argentinians use only their paternal surname. Thus, one would almost never hear Jorge Luis Borges referred to as "Borges Acevedo", although a native Spanish speaker would certainly understand that usage.
Often, one specifies for brevity only one of the two surnames, usually the one inherited from one's father. Thus, if one were to shorten the name of Gabriel García Márquez, it should be "García", not "Márquez" (although in his case it is more likely to be his nickname "Gabo"). Occasionally, a person with a common paternal surname and an uncommon maternal surname becomes widely known by the maternal surname, as with the artist Pablo Ruiz Picasso, best known simply as "Picasso", or the poet Federico García Lorca, often known simply as "Lorca".
Not every surname is a single word. A particularly felicitious or renowned combination of paternal and maternal surnames may propagate to the following generation as a double-barrelled paternal surname, especially when the paternal surname alone would be considered "undistinguished". This was the case with former Mexican President José López Portillo, whose mother was a "Pacheco" and whose full style was "José López Portillo y Pacheco". Other double-barreled surnames derive from church names, as " San José".
It was also common for surnames originating from CastileA former kingdom of Spain, Castile comprises the two regions of Old Castile in north-western Spain, and New Castile in the centre of the country. Previously an eastern county of the kingdom of Leon, Castile in the 11th century became an independent realm and Álavalava ( Basque Araba Spanish lava is a province of northern Spain, in the southern part of the autonomous community of the Basque Country. It is bordered by the provinces of Burgos, La Rioja, Navarra, Guipuzcoa, and Vizcaya. Its capital is Vitoria (Basque to have the form "(patronymic) de placename". Hence for José Ignacio López de Arriortúa , "López de Arriortúa" is just one surname. This can cause confusion as both "López" and "de Arriortúa" can be found as single surnames. In Spain, unlike in neighboring FranceThe French Republic or France ( French: Republique francaise or France is a country whose metropolitan territory is located in western Europe, and which is further made up of a collection of overseas islands and territories located in other continents., the prefix "de" (meaning "of") on a surname does not typically indicate noble origin. It may be introduced just to mark a surname that can be misunderstood as a forename. Thus, Luis de Miguel Pérez marks that his forename is just Luis, not Luis Miguel. In short forms, the de may be included ( Hernando de SotoHernando de Soto is: A Spanish explorer of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, renowned for his explorations of North America. See Hernando de Soto (explorer) (~1496 1542) A Peruvian economist of the late twentieth and early twenty-first cen is known as "de Soto") or not ( Felipe de Borbón is a " Borbón" not a "de Borbón").
In Spanish, most surnames ending in "-ez" originated as patronymics. Thus "López" originally meant "son of Lope", "Fernández" meant "son of Fernando", etc. Other common examples of this are "Hernández" (from Hernando, a variant of " FerdinandFerdinand is a Germanic name composed of the words for prepared and journey''. It is particularly common in nations that were colonized by the Visigoths: Fernando in Portuguese, Hernando in Spanish and Ferrand in Old French. Aragon Ferdinand I of Aragon t" / "Fernando"), "Rodríguez" (from " Rodrigo "), "Sánchez" (from "Sancho"), "Martínez" (from " MartínAs well as being a popular male name, Martin can denote: Places in the United Kingdom Martin, Hampshire Martin, Kent Martin, Horncastle, Lincolnshire Martin, Metheringham, Lincolnshire Also: Martin Dales, Martin Drove, Martin Hussingtree, Martin Mill."), and "Álvarez" (from "Álvaro"). "Cortez" (e.g. Alberto Cortez ), however, is a variant of "Cortés" (e.g. " Hernán Cortés").
After the recognition of co-official languages in Spain, the law allowed the translation or respelling of names to the official languages.