Spanish and Portuguese names

In Spanish-, Portuguese-, and Catalan-speaking regions of the world, people have two surnames. One is inherited from the father, the other from the mother. Parents pass on to their children the name they inherited from their father.

Table of contents

1 Spanish names 2 Portuguese names 3 Catalan names 4 External links

Spanish names

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.

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".

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 Federico García Lorca, sometimes known simply as "Lorca".

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".

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"), "Rodríguez" (from "Rodrigo"), "Sánchez" (from "Sancho"), "Martínez" (from "Martín"), and "Álvarez" (from "Álvaro").

In Spain, unlike in neighboring France, the prefix "de" (meaning "of") on a surname does not typically indicate noble origin.

Portuguese names

In countries where Portuguese is spoken, the pattern is similar to the Spanish one, except that the maternal surname is placed before the paternal surname.

Catalan names

Catalan has very similar conventions to Spanish, except that: (1) a woman's name does not change after marriage and (2) a person's two surnames are separated by "i" ("and"). A real-world example would be the current (as of 2004) president of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Pasqual Maragall i Mira. Others are more commonly known only by a single last name; his predecessor is generally referred to simply as "Jordi Pujol", but is more properly "Jordi Pujol i Soley".

See also:

• List of personal naming conventions (for other languages)
• Name for general coverage of the topic

External links

• Hispanic Heraldy (in Spanish) - Information about the Hispanic surnames.
• Catalan Society of Heraldy (in Catalan) - Information about Catalan surnames.