How are people named in various countries?

Question

In the US the general rule is that the wife takes the husbands name at marriage (this is changing slowly) and children are given the father name.

In Mexico the child is given the mothers and the fathers names.

For example: Mom is Lopez and dad is Sanchez. The child would be first name, middel name (optional) Lopez Sanchez. The woman's name would not change at marriage. This makes looking people up in phone books very hard if you only know the husband or the wife.

Ana Maria Lopez Sanchez marries Pablo Tomas Martinez Ayala their kids would be named FN, MN, Sanchez Martinez. The mothers names get dropped and the fathers pass on.

I think it may be different in different countries. So tell us how it is done in yours.

Your 4th paragraph contradicts your third paragraph. (your 3rd paragraph accords with what I observed in Mexico). - samdie, Jan 5, 2012

Answer 1

I think it is the same way in all countries where Spanish is spoken.

Answer 2

I find in Spain that having a typical English speakers naming set-up: First name, middle name surname can cause all sorts of problems. I try always to suppress the middle name now. Because Spanish speakers are used to people having 2 appellidos I can be issued, for example with plane tickets using my middle name as surname. That can cause problems when I arrive in, say, the UK

Answer 3

I live in Kenya, and here I've noticed that most children take their fathers' last names, but the wives don't necessarily take their husbands' last names.

I come from Rwanda, and for the most part in my country, Wives dont take their husbands' names, and children don't take their fathers' names. For example, in my family, we are six people, and each one of us has their own last name.

So where do you get last names from? Another family member or pick something you like? - ashepard, Jan 5, 2012

The parents or relatives generally pick them... Our last names kind of have meaning, they are like short sentences in our mother tongue... My last name, NISHIMWE, means "give thanks to God" in my mother tongue. - lydianish1, Jan 11, 2012

Answer 4

First Name, Middle Name(s) (optional), Father's First Surname, Mother's First Surname

Optional> Father's Second Surname, Mother's Second Surname (the last two are hardly used anymore).

At least in Venezuela and Puerto Rico, it is now optional for a woman to take her husband's surname.

Answer 5

Thanks. Anyone from Chile or Argentina? How do you do it?

Answer 6

I think it is the same way in all countries where Spanish is spoken.

I dont think so because I have heard the use of "de last name"

Last name = surname = apellido in Spanish. - chileno, Jan 5, 2012

Answer 7

In my country (Costa Rica, Central America) this one in desuetude that the woman adopts the lady of ... or Widow of ... to refer to the surnames of the husband and agree there interfere new laws that favor the women and family, it is already possible that the children could take first only the maternal surname and not the paternal one like it was a custom if the father does not accept theirs give to the child or girl. For general norm the majority of the Latin ones we use the first and second name (also almost in desuetude preferring only the first one in my country) paternal surname and of last the maternal surname. Sorry for my bad english

Answer 8

I dont think so because I have heard the use of "de last name"

This sounds like spanglish, which is not representative of either Spanish or English, so I think Chileno is right.