Spanish surnames are often impressively long. That is because a child is given the surnames of both parents at birth. The first surname is that of the father, the second of the mother. In principle, then, children never have exactly the same surnames as their parents.
A major difference researchers encounter is the number of surnames. In Spain and Spanish American countries, except Argentina, each person has two surnames. Traditionally, the first surname is paternal and comes from the father, while the second surname is maternal and comes from the mother.
Spanish Last Names Ending in -Ez
Many Spanish surnames end in the letter combination "ez." This denotes the meaning "son of." In other cultures, different letter combinations signify the "son of" meaning.
You may wonder why people from Spanish speaking countries have such long names. This is because we have usually two family names (surnames), when not more. Following an ancient tradition, when a child is born, he/she receives the first surname from the father and the second surname is the first surname of the mother.
Spaniards have a personal name(s) followed by two surnames – the father's paternal family name and then the mother's paternal family name. For example: Hector Marίa GONZALEZ LÓPEZ. People may have two personal names (e.g. Hector Marίa).
Hispanic refers to a person with ancestry from a country whose primary language is Spanish. Latino and its variations refer to a person with origins from anywhere in Latin America (Mexico, South and Central America) and the Caribbean.
List of the most common surnames in Mexico: Hernández – 5,526,929. García – 4,129,360. Martínez – 3,886,887.
The two surnames names are ancestral, with the father's family name followed by the mother's family name. In Colombia, for example, “Ernesto Escobar Vega” uses two surnames (“Escobar Vega ”) as his legal name, with “Escobar” coming from his father and “Vega” coming from his mother.
What Are the Royal Surnames of Spain? The last name of the Spanish royal family is Borbón, which comes from the House of Bourbon (or Borbón), a European dynasty with French origins. Nowadays, the Borbóns are the only surviving house of royals in Spain, and its current representative on the throne is King Juan Carlos I.
What happens to your surnames when you marry? Nothing. Your name does not change. In Spain, the tradition of women adopting their husband's family name does not exist, and it is a custom I (and most Spanish women would agree) find weird and do not understand.
Hi Erin, the Y generally means that it's the second last name, taken from the husband's mother. So if you were called “name lastname 1 y lastname 2”, lastname 1 would represent your fathers father's name, and the lastname 2 would represent your father's mothers name. It was a way of keeping both names in the family.
Traditionally, family names come first in Japanese, as they do in China and Korea.
Gender: Historically, Maria has been given as a first name to girls and sometimes as a middle name to boys, but it can be given to babies of any gender.
People in Britain during the 15th century began hyphenating their last names in order to commemorate the combining of their family fortunes. Also, when there were no male heirs, the bride's name could be taken on by the husband.
In México we don't have “middle” names or “last" names. We follow the Spanish naming convention, which consists in having one or more given names, followed by a paternal family name and a maternal family name.
In Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Puerto Rico, both men and women carry their two family names (first their father's, and second their mother's). Both are equally important and are mandatory for any official document.
Hispanic last names generally consist of the paternal last name followed by the maternal last name. It is common to see de or y used in a Hispanic last name.
Smith. In the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, Smith prevails consistently.
López or Lopez is a surname of Spanish origin. It was originally a patronymic, meaning "Son of Lope", Lope itself being a Spanish given name deriving from Latin lupus, meaning "wolf".
Yet there's no doubt about which surname is the most popular in the world: Wang. More than 106 million people have the surname Wang, a Mandarin term for prince or king. It's not too surprising that the top surname is Chinese, as China has the world's largest population.
The tradition in Spain is for a child to take on the surname of their father and mother, hence why most Spanish people always have two surnames.
The Most Popular African-American Names Today
The top five surnames remain Williams, Johnson, Smith, Jones, and Brown. Other popular names include Davis, Jackson, Robinson, Washington, and Harris.
Ramírez, Hernández, Pérez, Fernández, Martínez, Jiménez, Rodríguez and so on.