I have to say that even though at first two last names was just confusing, I'm beginning to kind of like it. It's like always doing just a little bit of family history. No one ever has to ask you what your mother's maiden name is. Just for those who don't know, Mexicans have two last names. Their first last name is their father's last name, and their second last name is their mother's last name. I'm not positive on this and some of my Mexican readers may have to correct me on this, but when a person gets married they don't take the husband's last name. They add on a "of (insert husband's last name here)". So for example, if I married a Smith, I would be Angela Mumford of Smith. I know my sister would be disappointed in that tradition, she was dying to get rid of the lovely/impossible for other people to spell last name of Mumford. Thankfully Mumford & Sons has made living with the Mumford name just a little bit easier. Anyway, even though two last names is hard to keep track of, you generally don't have to. People generally go by their first or middle name (one or the other) and their father's last name. So if I were Maria Angela García Hernández... people would just call me Maria García. So really the last remaining reason why I might dislike people having 4 names is because of the email at work. If I look up email by person it takes their mother's maiden name instead of their father's which can be frustrating if you didn't memorize all 4 of their names. Keep in mind the person writing this has trouble in general just remembering one name... so give me just a little bit of sympathy.Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Segundo Apellido
I have to say that even though at first two last names was just confusing, I'm beginning to kind of like it. It's like always doing just a little bit of family history. No one ever has to ask you what your mother's maiden name is. Just for those who don't know, Mexicans have two last names. Their first last name is their father's last name, and their second last name is their mother's last name. I'm not positive on this and some of my Mexican readers may have to correct me on this, but when a person gets married they don't take the husband's last name. They add on a "of (insert husband's last name here)". So for example, if I married a Smith, I would be Angela Mumford of Smith. I know my sister would be disappointed in that tradition, she was dying to get rid of the lovely/impossible for other people to spell last name of Mumford. Thankfully Mumford & Sons has made living with the Mumford name just a little bit easier. Anyway, even though two last names is hard to keep track of, you generally don't have to. People generally go by their first or middle name (one or the other) and their father's last name. So if I were Maria Angela García Hernández... people would just call me Maria García. So really the last remaining reason why I might dislike people having 4 names is because of the email at work. If I look up email by person it takes their mother's maiden name instead of their father's which can be frustrating if you didn't memorize all 4 of their names. Keep in mind the person writing this has trouble in general just remembering one name... so give me just a little bit of sympathy.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment