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Geni naming conventions - Latin America
See the projects Geni naming conventions and Geni naming conventions - data entry for general guidance.
- Use ordinary case. Name Preference Settings can be used to change how names are displayed to your personal preference.
- Place the last name a person was born with in the Birth Surname field and the last name they died with in the Surname field. All other names and nicknames go in the “also known as” field, comma separated.
- America was colonized by different European countries. Follow the naming conventions for the European entity in those cases.
- Immigrants from other countries may best be shown using both their original language name and their anglicized name. Additionally, a name change is well depicted by use of both “original” and “last” names.
- Early native Americans peoples did not traditionally have a surname. Leave birth surname and Last Name / Surname fields blank. If you know the tribe, enter in the “ethnicity” field. If you know the language, enter it in the “language” field. See Native American naming conventions.
- Enslaved persons may have acquired a surname, but may not have been born with one, so “birth surname” should be blank. See more at Naming conventions for enslaved Americans.
Latin America < Wikipedia >
Latin America[c] is a collective region of the Americas where Romance languages—languages derived from Latin—are predominantly spoken.[6] The term was coined in France in the mid-19th century to refer to regions in the Americas that were ruled by the Spanish, Portuguese, and French empires.
The term does not have a precise definition, but it is "commonly used to describe South America, Central America, Mexico, and the islands of the Caribbean."[7] In a narrow sense, it refers to Spanish America and Brazil (Portuguese America).[8] The term "Latin America" is broader than Hispanic America, which specifically refers to Spanish-speaking countries; and lesser than categories such as Ibero-America, a term that refers to both Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries from Europe and Americas.
Naming customs of Hispanic America < Wikipedia >
The naming customs of Hispanic America are similar to the Spanish naming customs practiced in Spain, with some modifications to the surname rules. Many Hispanophones in the countries of Spanish-speaking America have two given names, plus like in Spain, a paternal surname (primer apellido or apellido paterno) and a maternal surname (segundo apellido or apellido materno).
Colonial Hispanic America
In the colonial period and nineteenth century, it was common to have between one and three given names followed by a second name with a "de" (from) in front. For example, the Saint Teresa de Los Andes whose birth name is Juana Enriqueta Josefina de los Sagrados Corazones Fernández del Solar. Where "Juana", "Enriqueta" and "Josefina" are her first names, followed by the second name "de los Sagrados Corazones". Her paternal surname is "Fernández" and her maternal surname is "del Solar".
Another form of second name can be preceded by a "de" particle, which can be varied to "del" or "de los". Examples are "José del Pilar", "Rosa del Carmen", "Fidelina de las Mercedes". These second names are only used in formal occasions, and in many cases only registered in the birth, marriage and death certificates.
Modern day
Children who are not recognized by their father or to be raised separately have been legally treated in two ways, changing from time to time according to the civil registration norms. One way is to be registered with only a first surname that is the mother's surname. The second way is to have the mother's surname as first surname and second surname.[original research?]
Another case is to only register the father's surname and not giving reference to the mother, in accordance with US naming customs. This can be done to avoid legal and clerical complications in the future.[citation needed].
The particle "de" (of)
See also: Spanish naming customs § The particle "de" (of)
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In some instances, such as high society meetings, the husband's surname can be added after the woman's surnames using the conjunction de (of). Thus Leocadia Blanco Álvarez, married to a Pedro Pérez Montilla, may be addressed as Leocadia Blanco de Pérez or as Leocadia Blanco Álvarez de Pérez. This format is not used in everyday settings and has no legal value (with the exception of Argentina and the Dominican Republic).[citation needed]
In other nations doing so is frowned upon. The contemporary naming custom now practises the wife retaining her surname. The use of the husband's surname by a wife is typically encountered in social situations where the connection to the husband is being stressed. Her full formal married-name (Ángela López Sáenz de Portillo) is the documentary convention in only some Latin American countries. Where it exists, the custom provides her with ceremonial life and death wife-names, Ángela López, Sra. de Portillo (Ángela López, Wife of Portillo) wherein Sra. (señora, "Mrs") connotes "wife"; and Ángela López Sáenz, vda. de Portillo (Ángela López Sáenz, Widow of Portillo), wherein vda. (viuda, "widow") denotes widowhood.
Some names have the de conjunction without association to marriage at all. Instead they may reflect the geographical origin of the individual or that of the individual ancestors. Thus there are men named Juan Ponce de León, José de Guzmán Benítez, Cristián de la Fuente and Oscar de la Renta.
In the following list some women who have used the suffix de between their paternal surname and their marital surname.
Eva Duarte de Perón born: María Eva Duarte
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner born: Cristina Elisabet Fernández
Carolina Correa de Rojas born: Carolina Correa Londoño
Amparo Grisales de Tessarolo born: Amparo Grisales Patiño
Gabriela Rodríguez de Bukele born: Gabriela Roberta Rodríguez Perezalonso
Patricia Marroquín de Morales born: Hilda Patricia Marroquín Argueta
Fabiana Rosales de Guaido born: Fabiana Andreina Rosales Guerrero
Legal implications
The Hispanic preference for using the first surname from the father over the second surname from the mother occasionally results in serious legal problems in the United States, where, by social convention, most people have a first name, an optional middle name, and a single last name inherited solely from the father.
For example, the 2006 decision on Corona Fruits & Veggies v. Frozsun Foods, from one of the California Courts of Appeal, held that a creditor had failed to perfect its security interest in the strawberry crop of a debtor whose full true name was "Armando Muñoz Juárez."[13] In accordance with Mexican naming convention, he frequently went by Armando Muñoz, and signed documents by that name, and the creditor's financing statement therefore referred to him as "Armando Muñoz."[13] The court ruled: "Debtor's last name did not change when he crossed the border into the United States. The 'naming convention' is legally irrelevant[.]"[13] In other words, under the California implementation of the Uniform Commercial Code, the debtor's "true last name" was Juárez (his maternal surname).[13]
Indexing
According to the Chicago Manual of Style, Spanish and Hispanophone names are indexed by the family name. In case there are two family names, the indexing is done under the father's family name; this would be the first element of the surname if the father's and mother's or husband's family names are joined by a y. Depending upon the person involved, the particle de may be treated as a part of a family name or it may be separated from a family name. The indexing of Hispanophone names differs from that of Portuguese or Lusophone names, where the indexing occurs from the final element of the name.[14]
Spanish naming customs < Wikipedia >
This article is about naming customs in Spain. For naming customs in Hispanic America, see Naming customs of Hispanic America.
Spanish names are the traditional way of identifying, and the official way of registering, a person in Spain and Hispanic America. They are composed of a given name (simple or composite[a]%29 and two surnames (the first surname of each parent). Traditionally, the first surname is the father's first surname, and the second is the mother's first surname. Since 1999, the order of the surnames in a family in Spain is decided when registering the first child, but the traditional order is nearly universally chosen (99.53% of the time).[2][b]
The practice is to use one given name and the first surname generally (e.g. "Miguel de Unamuno" for Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo); the complete name is reserved for legal, formal and documentary matters. Both surnames are sometimes systematically used when the first surname is very common (e.g., Federico García Lorca, Pablo Ruiz Picasso or José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero) to get a more distinguishable name.[5] In these cases, it is even common to use only the second surname, as in "Lorca", "Picasso" or "Zapatero". This does not affect alphabetization: "Lorca", the Spanish poet, must be alphabetized in an index under "García Lorca", not "Lorca" or "García".
Forms of address
A man named José Antonio Gómez Iglesias would normally be addressed as either señor Gómez or señor Gómez Iglesias instead of señor Iglesias, because Gómez is his first surname. Furthermore, Mr. Gómez might be informally addressed as
José Antonio
José
Pepe (nickname for José)
Antonio
Toño (nickname for Antonio)
Joselito, Josito, Joselillo, Josico or Joselín (diminutives of José)
Antoñito, Toñín, Toñito, Ñoño or Nono (diminutives of Antonio)
Joseán (apocopation).
Very formally, he could be addressed with an honorific such as don José Antonio or don José.
Portuguese name < Wikipedia >
A Portuguese name or Lusophone name – a personal name in the Portuguese language – is typically composed of one or two personal names, the mother's family surname and the father's family surname (rarely only one surname, sometimes more than two). For practicality, usually only the last surname (excluding prepositions) is used in formal greetings.
The Portuguese naming system is very flexible. Portuguese law establishes the need for a child to have at least one personal name and one surname from one of the parents. The law also establishes the maximum number of names allowed: up to two personal names and four surnames.[1] Advice from the Ministério da Justiça says of this restriction that a name "may contain a maximum of six simple words or compounds, as a rule, up to two first names and four surnames"; more may be permissible in some circumstances.[1]
Usually, the maternal surnames precede the paternal ones, but the opposite is also possible.[1] If the father is unknown, or he has not acknowledged the child, only the mother's family name(s) is/are used. A child can receive surnames from their parents' ancestors, even if those surnames are not part of the parents' names, provided that the parents prove those names were used by their ancestors.[1]
Some Portuguese family names are made of two words, most often not hyphenated, but are not composite names, as they were not the result of combining two family names in past generations; instead, the words constitute a single logical unit. These include toponyms (e.g. Castelo Branco), religious references (e.g. Espírito Santo, Santa Rita), or other expressions (e.g. Corte Real, Mil-Homens). In this case both words must be cited (e.g. writer Camilo Castelo Branco is never referred to as Camilo Branco).
Number of names
It is not uncommon in Portugal that a married woman has two personal names and six surnames, two from her mother's family, two from her father's family, and the last two coming from her husband. In addition, some of these names may be made of more than one word, so that a full feminine name can have more than 12 words. For instance, the name "Maria do Carmo Mão de Ferro e Cunha de Almeida Santa Rita Santos Abreu" would not be surprising in a married woman. Mão de Ferro (iron hand) and Santa Rita (after Saint Rita of Cascia) count only as one surname each. In this case, Santos Abreu would probably have come from this woman's husband. She would be typically known as Maria do Carmo Abreu (since Marian invocation names tend to stick together) and would be typically alphasorted and collated under Abreu.
Surname and marriage
The custom of a woman adopting a different surname through marriage was not originally a Portuguese-Brazilian tradition.[citation needed] It spread in the late 19th century in the upper classes, under French influence.[citation needed] After the 1940s, it became almost socially obligatory. Not doing so was seen as evidence of concubinage, particularly until the 1970s. There is no longer a distinct pattern, with both men and women being allowed to choose whether to change or not change their surname(s).
Brazilian-specific patterns
Children of immigrants
In Brazil, recent immigrants – especially Italians, Germans, Jews and Japanese – usually give their sons only the father's family surname. Although there is no legal restriction on this practice, assimilation usually leads to a shift toward a Portuguese pattern in succeeding generations.
Today one can find people who use two Italian surnames (like "Gardi Bianchini") or two Japanese surnames (like "Sugahara Uemura"), a practice that is unusual in Italy and nonexistent in Japan. Having two surnames from different non-Portuguese origin is also not uncommon, such as the Brazilian celebrity Sabrina Sato Rahal, of Japanese and Swiss-Lebanese descent. Particularly common are German-Italian combinations (Becker Bianchini, for instance), especially in Rio Grande do Sul.
The Spanish pattern is in many ways similar, but the father's surname usually precedes the mother's, unlike Portuguese usage. Almost all of the first Spanish-Brazilian born generation were named in order of the family surnames of the Portuguese pattern.
Areas of Latin America and surroundings where Romance languages are spoken
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Map-Romance_Latin_America.svg (public domain)
References
- “Brazil Naming Customs” < FamilySearch >