How to Address a Card to a Family With Two Last Names
With the influence that Castilian culture has had around the world, you may very well have Spanish roots somewhere in your family tree.
For those unfamiliar with Spanish naming conventions, finding and exploring ancestors may be a little confusing.
Today we start with Part one of our Spanish Naming Conventions serial – The Basics
We'll progress across that in the side by side few parts of this serial but, every bit with all things, allow'southward begin at the beginning…
Getting Started
Many of yous volition find that Castilian names tend to exist longer than in many other cultures. Past longer I don't mean they take more letters, I mean they have more words.
Before we get into why this is the case information technology'due south important to sympathize that the concept of a "Middle Proper name" doesn't exist in Spanish naming conventions.
In one case you forget near the Heart Name, understanding the total name becomes significantly easier.
Throughout this post I'll utilize the current Spanish Prime number Government minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and his family unit, equally an example to explain Castilian civilization naming conventions.
Keep in heed though, that where I employ the word Spain or Spanish, I'm really speaking most Spanish culture extending all around the globe, not simply civilization from the land of Spain.
First/Given Names
In Spanish cultures, people either have 1 or ii given names. For instance Juan or, like the Spanish Prime Minister, José Luis.
Notation that, equally mentioned in a higher place, Luis is not the Prime Government minister's center proper name just part of a total, single, given name – José Luis.
Surnames
In Spanish cultures, people traditionally accept 2 surnames.
The first is the paternal surname (apellido paterno), the begetter's first surname, and the second is the maternal surname (apellido materno), the mother's offset surname.
As y'all may accept realised, this means that what we would call the mother's maiden name, is passed downward a further generation than in traditional Anglophone cultures.
Going back to our friend José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, using the information above we now understand that Rodriguez is his paternal surname and Zapatero is his maternal surname.
This betoken about the paternal surname coming first and the maternal surname coming second is an important one to remember, equally nosotros'll discuss below in the paragraph about how to address someone by their surname.
Married Names and Children'south Names
In Castilian culture, women do not change their name when married.
What that ways is that the female parent, father and children in one family unit will all, generally, have different surnames.
For instance:
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is married to Sonsoles Espinosa Díaz (Espinosa is her paternal surname and Diaz is her maternal surname) and their children's names are Laura Rodríguez Espinosa and Alba Rodríguez Espinosa.
Addressing Someone By Their Surname
When addressing someone by their surname in Spanish cultures, as a general rule y'all utilise their paternal surname.
So, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero would exist known equally Señor Rodriguez, not Señor Zapatero.
Without trying to confuse you lot, it is important to note that dropping the paternal surname is not unusual when it is a very common i.
This is the case with the former Prime Minister of Espana, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who, considering of how mutual the surname Rodriguez is, is actually known as Zapatero.
That having been said, focus on the general rule and y'all should be OK.
Likewise, keep in mind that it's condign more than pop among Hispanic cultures in the Americas to hyphenate the two surnames. This is an endeavour to avoid confusion when dealing with Anglophone countries that aren't familiar with Spanish naming conventions.
Let's leave information technology at that place for now as this has been an excellent start and will help those of yous unfamiliar with Spanish naming conventions to get upward to speed on how these conventions are different to those you may be more familiar with. If you take an interesting Castilian surname, get out us comment below.
If you'd like to exercise more research on your surname, commencement by visiting MyHeritage SuperSearch™. With over 9 billion historical records and counting you are leap to make some fascinating discoveries.
Source: https://blog.myheritage.com/2011/07/spanish-naming-conventions-%E2%80%93-part-1-the-basics/
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