Two Last Names?

     A recent discussion topic of a fellow co-worker and I lead to this post. Why and how is it that most Hispanic people have two last names? How can you have 2 of the "last" thing? To begin with in Spanish the last name is not called a last name. The word that is used is apellido, literally translated to be surname. Most Hispanics normally have 2 apellidos (surnames).  The "first" name is referred to as a nombre. The middle name is referred to as a second name (segundo nombre) and the surnames are the apellidos. Let me break this down for you Gringo style. For example our persons name is as follows:

John Lee Smith Brown

Name nombre: John
Second name segundo nombre: Lee
Surnames apellidos: Smith Brown

Let's see how John got his 2 surnames!

Dad's surnames: Smith James
Mom's surnames: Brown Allred

Dad's gives the Smith, Mom gives the Brown. The first surname comes from dad and the second surname comes from mom. It always follows the pattern of  PATERNAL MATERNAL.

What if this is a woman? The same rules apply! If this woman gets married though, it is not typical that she would take her husband's name.  Let's just say (for fun) that John Lee Smith Brown married a gal named Mary Jane Cox Hurley (Cox coming from her dad and Hurley from her mom).

When John L. Smith Brown and Mary J. Cox Hurley have kids...their surnames will be Smith Cox.

Have I lost you yet? I hope not! It is fairly easy when you play with your own names. Give it a shot, try it out. The good thing about this is that you represent your mom AND your dad when you have 2 surnames, not just the dad!
 I hope this gives you a little more insight into the Hispanic world of names.

For any of you who might be curious.... no, we did not give our children 2 last names. I would have, but at the time when Nate was born, the hospital wasn't familiar with using 2 surnames and wanted to type them together. I refused so we just did Luis' last name. When Nico came along, well, we thought it only fair that they have the same last name.
When we got married, I was young and not sure how the whole "last name" thing worked but I did as most Americans do and took my husband's last name. His family thinks it is totally funny that I have their last name and am not a blood relative! They always make me feel like I am though...and I sure am thankful!