Understand in spanish1/9/2023 Smith, but her full legal name would be, in the more traditional form: Ann Miller y Brown de Smith. So, Thomas’s wife would be known socially as la Sra. What happens to a woman’s last name in the Spanish-speaking world? Nothing! She keeps it, but adds de plus the husband’s father’s father’s name. Some people might view this as unfair – but in traditional Anglo culture, it is lost as soon as a woman gets married and takes her husband’s surname. Their names would be: Richard Smith Miller and Julie Smith Miller.Īs you can see, the matrilineal, or maiden names, are preserved for one generation. What do you suppose their full names would be? Remember, they take their father’s father’s name first and their mother’s father’s name second. They then have a daughter and name her Julie. Now, when Ann and Thomas get married and have a child, they have a boy and decide to name him Richard. According to the Spanish surname system, can you guess what her full name would be? If you guessed Ann Miller Brown, you are right. So, let’s imagine that across town, another couple, Steve Miller and his wife Theresa, whose maiden name was Brown, have a daughter. These two differences are all you need to keep in mind when hearing or reading a Spanish name given in full.Ĭarrying this into a second generation, we need a future wife for Thomas. When Anglos opt to give both surnames to their children, the mother’s surname often comes first and the combined surname is often hyphenated. The y is usually omitted nowadays.The father’s father’s surname, Smith, comes first, followed by the mother’s father’s father’s surname. According to the Spanish system, Thomas’s full name would be: Thomas Smith y Jones. (As we all know, Jones would have been Jane’s father’s last name, following the male line.) They decide to name the baby Thomas. John Smith and his wife Jane, whose maiden name was Jones. ![]() If this sounds a bit confusing, let’s take a simple example of how this works, using common Anglo names, pretending that the Spanish system of surnames was about to be started in our country. Whatever the origin of surnames may be, in Spain and in all Spanish-speaking countries, a person bears both his father’s father’s last name and his mother’s father’s last name. Surnames, or last names, developed from where the person was from (Leonardo da Vinci being a famous case, since he was from Vinci), from trades (such as Smith or Miller), or from some peculiar personal trait – even a physical trait like a crooked nose or big ears. In many cultures, people once had only one name.
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