| Spanish-speaking countries or Former Spanish Colonies
For more details on this topic,
see Spanish naming customs.
In medieval times, a patronymic system similar to the one still used in
Iceland emerged. For example, Álvaro, the son of Rodrigo would be
named Álvaro Rodríguez. His son, Juan, would not be named Juan
Rodríguez, but Juan Álvarez. Over time, many of these patronymics
became family names and are some of the most common names in the
Spanish-speaking world. Other sources of surnames are personal appearance or
habit, e.g. Delgado ("thin") and Moreno
("tan"); occupations, e.g. Molinero ("miller") and Guerrero
("warrior"); and geographic location or ethnicity, e.g. Alemán
("German").
However, nowadays in Spain and in many Spanish-speaking countries (former
Spanish colonies, e.g. Philippines, Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Peru, Chile,
Venezuela), most people have two surnames, although in some situations only the
first is used. The first surname is the paternal one, inherited from the
father's paternal surname. The second surname is the maternal one, inherited
from the mother's paternal surname. (As an example, Mexican boxer Marco Antonio Barrera's full name is Marco
Antonio Barrera Tapia, though Barrera is the only one used in general
conversation.) In Spain, a new law approved in 1999 allows an adult to change
the order of his/her surnames, and parents can also change the order of their
children's surnames if they agree (if one of their children is at least 12
years old they need his/her agreement too). [5]
(Link in Spanish)
Depending on the country, the surnames may or may not be linked by the
conjunction y ("and"), i ("and", in Catalonia), de
("of") and de la ("of the", when the following word
is feminine). However, in many South American countries, people have now
adopted the English-speaking custom of having a single surname (e.g., in Argentina).
Sometimes a new father transmits his complete surname by creating a new one,
combining his two surnames, e.g., the paternal surname of the son of Javier
(given name) Reyes (paternal surname) de la Barrera (maternal
surname) may become the new paternal surname Reyes de la Barrera.
At present in Spain,
women upon marrying keep their two family names. In certain rare situations,
especially the nobility, she may be addressed as if her maternal surname had
been replaced with her husband's paternal surname, often linked with de.
For example, a woman named Ana García Díaz, upon marrying Juan
Guerrero Macías, could be called Ana García de Guerrero. This
custom, begun in medieval times, is decaying and only has legal validity in Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Peru and Panama. In Peru and
Dominican Republic, women normally conserve all last names after getting
married. For example, if Rosa María Pérez Mártinez marries Juan
Martín De La Cruz Gómez, she will be called Rosa María Pérez Mártinez de
De La Cruz, and if the husband passes away, she will be called Rosa
María Pérez Mártinez Vda. de De La Cruz (Vda. is the abbreviation for
Viuda, "widow" in Spanish). In Ecuador, a couple can choose the order
of their children's surnames. Most choose the traditional order (e.g., Guerrero
García in the example above), but some invert the order, putting the
mother's paternal surname first and the father's paternal surname last (e.g., García
Guerrero from the example above). Such inversion, if chosen, must be
maintained for all the children.
In Argentina
only one surname, the father's paternal surname, is commonly used and
registered, as in English-Speaking countries. Women, however, do not change
their surname upon marriage and continue to use their birth name instead of their husband's last
name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_name
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