Explainer: Why are many Hispanic surnames formed from 2 names and how does that work in the US?
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — What’s in a last name? For many people in Spain and Latin America, it’s about who your father is and who your mother is.
The tradition of using two surnames clearly identifies family relationships throughout much of the Spanish-speaking world. But in the United States, having two last names can be a bureaucratic headache, or worse.
In the United States, more than 68 million people identify as Hispanic, according to the latest census estimates. Many of them use two last names.
A famous example can be found in the birth name of Puerto Rican rap superstar Bad Bunny, who is set to perform at this weekend’s Super Bowl halftime show. His first name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, named after his father Tito Martínez and his mother Lysaurie Ocasio.
But there’s more to the origin story of Hispanic last names.
In Spain and most Latin American countries, surnames are made up of two nouns. The first name comes from the father and the second from the mother, with a few exceptions.
Here’s how it works. If Victoria’s father is Daniel Flores Garcia and her mother is Ana Salinas Marquez, her last name will be Flores Salinas.
Women often keep their birth name when they marry, but laws and traditions vary by country. Women sometimes add their husband’s paternal name. An old way of doing this is to use “de”, which means “of” in the name.
So if Victoria Flores Salinas marries Carlos Sandoval Cruz, she will probably remain Victoria Flores Salinas. But in some countries she could become Victoria Flores Sandoval or Victoria Flores de Sandoval. Other variations are also possible, such as adding Sandoval after Salinas.
Anyway, if Victoria and Carlos have a child named Francisco, his full name will be Francisco Sandoval Flores.
People with typical Hispanic surnames who live in the United States often simply use the paternal surname to conform to the norm of a single surname. So, in the United States, Francisco Sandoval Flores could simply be called Francisco Sandoval.
However, people who are unfamiliar with these naming conventions sometimes assume that the father’s name is a middle name and not a last name.
To avoid this problem, some people continue to use both last names. Still others make a hyphen between the two names. Sometimes people even mix the two names. Susana Pimiento has had to use these three strategies for over 20 years since she moved to the United States.
Pimiento owns a translation and interpreting services agency in Austin, Texas, but is originally from Colombia. Her full name is Susana Pimiento Chamorro, but she uses it only for official government business. Even then, things can get tricky.
When she first went to get a driver’s license in Texas, the only way to allow her to keep both of her last names was to hyphenate them.
“I could have dropped my mother’s last name, but it wouldn’t match my passport,” she said.
Some airlines only allow one last name on a ticket, so she must combine both of her last names as if they were one word.
When she got a green card, things were even worse. The government released it with her husband’s name “not even in the American way, but in the Latin American way,” she said. “So I was Susana from Hammond. Like ‘from Hammond’.”
She had to return the card, which did not match any of her other documents. It took a year before the government finally issued a new one with his real name. In the meantime, she had to request special permission to leave the United States so she could travel for work.
“Before I got married, I told my husband, ‘I’m not taking your name, you know? That’s not possible,'” she said. “So when my green card arrived with Susana from Hammond, we laughed. We thought it was a joke. But, oh my God, it was so hard to make things right!”
