Tag: reference

I recall being told years ago that it is common (if not de facto) for a child of Mexican descent to have their mother’s maiden (patronymic) last name as a sort of middle name? E.g. If mom was a Rodriquez, you might be [given name] Rodriquez Santiago? Is this the case or is my memory faulty? Important for naming a MC of mine (and her mom) as her mother’s parents were both from Mexico. Both MC + mom were born in California (US), setting is contemporary, mom’s 42yo, MC is 16… (1/2)

writingwithcolor:

Mexican Naming Patterns (Apellidos)

Howdy, 

I’m not sure I didn’t already answer this before but I’m happy to answer it again:

You are born “Firstname + Dad’s first surname + Mom’s first surname”.

If a woman gets married and changes her name, she will usually either:

1. Replace her matronym with her husband’s patronym. 
2. Replace her matronym with “de” + husband’s patronym (which explicitly denotes that she is married). 

So, let’s walk you through it: 

Maria Alvarez Rodriguez gets married to Manuel Martinez Guzman, and from that point on, Maria Alvarez Rodriguez can do three things: 

1. Keep her maiden name as-is, which isn’t typical but is an option
2. Change her name to Maria Alvarez Guzman (replacing Rodriguez)
3. Change her name to Maria Alvarez de Guzman.

So, she picks the “de Guzman” route because she’s proud to be married and wants her name to show it (simply picking Maria Alvarez Guzman makes it ambiguous, the ‘de’ in there is an obvious ‘I am married’).  Manuel does not change his name.

So, now they are:

– Manuel Martinez Guzman (father)
– Maria Alvarez de Guzman (mother)
– Mateo Martinez Alvarez (son)
– Maria Martinez Alvarez (daughter). 

Later, the daughter, Maria Martinez Alvarez, gets married to Refugio Canales Flores.   She changes her name to Maria Martinez de Canales (just to keep things simple in this example and show you who’s married and who isn’t) and they have a son, Rocendo.  Just like last time, Chendo takes his  father’s first surname (Canales) and his mother’s first surname (Martinez). 

So now, they are: 

– Manuel Martinez Guzman (grandfather)
– Maria Alvarez de Guzman (grandmother) 
– Mateo Martinez Alvarez (son)
– Maria Martinez de Canales (daughter, married)
– Refugio Canales Flores (Maria’s husband)
– Rocendo Canales Martinez. 

In the United States, naming forms don’t account for our apellidos or dual-last-names, so you will find that people either 

A. Toss the tradition and assimilate and keep the patronym (your dad’s first surname) as the surname
B. Hyphenate their names (so their last name is “Martinez-Guzman”)
C. Use middle names as a placeholder for one of the surnames, usually your mother’s or your husband’s. In my mother’s case, when she got married, she kept her last name and changed her middle name to her husband’s last name.

– Rodríguez