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How Hispanic parents give their children first/personal names
The Spanish language (spoken in different dialects) is present on several continents across the world. To name a few, in North America (Mexico, Puerto Rico), Europe (Spain), Central America (Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador), South America (Argentina, Columbia, Chile). The word ‘Hispanic’ comes from Latin word " Spain " and includes all people who speak Spanish. So when we talk about ‘Hispanic names’, we’re including many people, with many cultures, each of whom speaks the Spanish language.
When a child is born (in Mexico ) a bracelet with colored beads and a small black bead is placed on the child to protect it from evil spirits. This is proceeded by "Echar agua" similar to baptism but more a precaution to protect the child from danger "mal ojo" or evil eye. This is also where the child in given his/her Christian name.
Hispanic first names (can also be known as Christian names) frequently have biblical histories or are named for Saints. Marias , Joses and Jesuses are very common names (English names being Mary, Joseph and Jesus). Names can also refer to geographical places (cities/towns/villages), nature (flowers or plants), or even gems. Like many others cultures, modern day naming practices can include new methods of naming a child coupled with bits of tradition.
Hispanic people generally have two last names. The first is the father's last name and the second is the mother's last name. When a woman gets married, she typically replaces her mother's last name with her husband's last name, and places a ‘de’ (meaning ‘of’) in front of it.
Hispanic cultures frequently use nicknames. Nicknames can derive from a physical attribute, a story associated with the individual, an endearing occurunce, a profession, or an abbreviated version of the person’s name. Nicknames are often used a person’s entire life.
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Spain and Hispanic areas
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In medieval times, a patronymic system similar to the one still used in Iceland emerged. For example, Álvaro, the son of Rodrigo would be named Álvaro Rodríguez. His son, Juan, would not be named Juan Rodríguez, but Juan Álvarez. Over time, many of these patronymics became family names and are some of the most common names in the Spanish-speaking world. Other sources of surnames are personal appearance or habit, e.g. Delgado ("thin") and Moreno ("tan"); occupations, e.g. Molinero ("miller") and Guerrero ("warrior"); and geographic location or ethnicity, e.g. Alemán ("German").
However, nowadays in Spain and in many countries of Hispanic culture (former Spanish colonies, e.g. México, Honduras, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Venezuela), most people have two surnames, although in some situations only the first is used. The first surname is the paternal one, inherited from the father's paternal surname. The second surname is the maternal one, inherited from the mother's paternal surname. Since both surnames come from the paternal surnames of the previous generation, their transmission can be seen as a patriarchal feature of the Hispanic society. In Spain, after a new law approved on 1999, an adult can change the order of his/her surnames and the parents can also change the order of their children's surnames if they agree (if one of their children is at least 12 years old they need his/her agreement too). [2] (Link in spanish)
Depending on the country, the surnames may or may not be linked by the conjunction y ("and"), i ("and", in Catalonia), de ("of") and de la ("of the", when the following word is feminine). However, in many South American countries people have now adopted the English-speaking custom, thus having a single surname (e.g. in Argentina). Sometimes a new father transmits his complete surname by creating a new one, combining his two surnames, e.g. the paternal surname of the son of Javier (given name) Reyes (paternal surname) de la Barrera (maternal surname) may become the new paternal surname Reyes de la Barrera.
At present day in Spain, women upon marrying keep their two family names intact. In certain situations she may be addressed as if her maternal surname were substituted with her husbands paternal surname often linked with de. For example, a woman named Ana García Díaz, upon marrying Juan Guerrero Macías, could be called Ana García de Guerrero. This custom, begun in medieval times, is decaying and only has legal validity in Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, and Panama. In Ecuador, a couple can choose the order of their children's surnames. Most choose the traditional order (e.g. Guerrero García in the example above), but some invert the order, putting the mother's paternal surname first and the father's paternal surname last (e.g. García Guerrero from the example above). Such inversion, if chosen, must be maintained for all the children.
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