Why do Spaniards have two surnames?
How do Spanish surnames work?
Why Spanish people usually have two surnames? And why some famous Spanish people have only one? These questions come to your mind either if you have a lots of Spanish friends or if you are interested in Spanish culture, sport culture included.
Let’s start talking about these phenomena one after another. Yes, Spanish people have two surnames, the first one is the paternal surname, whereas the second one is the maternal one. Keep in mind that both man and woman give their paternal surnames to their children, which means that the maternal ones tend to disappear as the family is growing. It´s interesting to mention however that some years ago laws related to the surnames changed. In consequence, the parents can decide in which order will appear the surnames, which means that the maternal one can appear in the first place as well.
How does it work in practice? If Juan Castillo Sánchez and María Pérez González decide to have children, the children's surname will be Castillo Pérez. And yes, that means that, only the siblings have the same surname. When it comes to the parents they save theirs surnames even after the wedding which is a quite curious phenomenon, at least in Europe.
Spanish pedigrees can seem complicated also for another reason. The tradition of giving the paternal and the maternal surname to the children became a law in 19th century. Before both the choice and the order of the surnames were up to each child. If you enjoy reading in Spanish and are interested in this subject, I recommend you this article where this whole process is described in an entertaining way.
Why some famous Spaniards have only one surname?
“Ok, but in this case, why do Rafael Nadal or Gerard Piqué use only one surname?” - this is what you might think at this moment. Well, in reality they do have two surnames. After all they were both born in Spain and recognized by their respective parents. Rafael Nadal’ full name is Rafael Nadal Parera and Gerard Piqué in fact is Gerard Piqué Bernabeu. However, provided that they are famous not only in Spain but also in many other countries, the use of two surnames it’s not the most practical choice. By the way, could you imagine the size of the football shirts if every Spanish footballer wanted to include his two surnames? Without talking about the amount of time that sport commentators would have to spend on pronouncing their names and surnames.
What happens if father doesn’t want to recognize someone as his child
In this case the mother will give her child both of her surnames, but in inverted order. In practice, if a woman called Susana Domingo Pérez is a single mother whose partner doesn´t want to recognize the child, she can register this child with surname Pérez Domingo.
Spanish traditions related to the surnames are quite original. This is why you should not be surprised seeing that the members of the same family have different surnames and this without being a patchwork family.
And since we are talking about family issues, why not to revise quickly some vocabulary related to this issue:
El nombre - name
El apellido / Los apellidos - surname / surnames
El apodo - nickname
Dar a luz – to give birth
La madre soltera – single mother
El padre soltero – single father
La familia - family
El matrimonio - marriage
Estar en pareja – to be in a couple
La familia ensamblada, reconstituida, mixta – patchwork family