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Straight Dope Classic from Cecil's storehouse of human knowledge13-Jan-1984
Dear Cecil:
There seems to be a convention in Spanish-speaking countries that most newspapers in the
United States follow but never explain. This is the use of a man's second-to-last name as
the name he is usually referred to by: for example, the president of Mexico, Miguel de la
Madrid Hurtado, is called President de la Madrid; the late premier of Chile, Salvador
Allende Gossens, is referred to as Premier Allende. Is this last name his wife's name
perhaps? If not, what is it? If it is, why isn't it hyphenated? This may very well be
something they teach you in Spanish 101, but there didn't seem to be any place I could
easily look it up. --Randy G., Dallas
Cecil replies:
Obviously, Randy, you're unfamiliar with The Chicago Manual of Style, which is chock-full
of meaningless trivia like this. From the manual we learn that the second-to-last name in
most Spanish personal names is the father's name (apellido paterno), and the last name is
the mother's maiden name (apellido materno). Thus Jose and Maria, whose father is Pedro
Santiago Lopez and whose mother before she was married was Luisa Rodriguez Castillo, would
be Jose Santiago Rodriguez and Maria Santiago Rodriguez. Male chauvinism being a
long-standing tradition in Spanish-speaking countries as elsewhere, the two would be Senor
Santiago and Senorita Santiago on second reference. Furthermore, according to the manual,
"a woman keeps her maiden name after marriage but drops her mother's family name and
replaces it with de plus her husband's family name" (you're writing this down,
right?). Thus Jose and Maria's mom is known as Luisa Rodriguez de Santiago.
The Spanish equivalent of the hyphen you occasionally see in English last name (e.g.,
Olivia Newton-John) is the Spanish y ("and"), as in Jose Ortega y Gasset. This
system results in occasional oddities. One of my distinguished journalist colleagues, for
instance, has a friend with the enchanting name Evangelina Rocha y Wodehouse, said friend
having had a Mexican father and an English mother. Persons who think this practice
demonstrates an uncharacteristically liberated point of view (you know, wife's name
getting equal billing and all) should keep in mind that a woman's maiden name is really
her father's last name. In one sense, then, the use of dual last names simply signifies
the union of two male lineages.
While we're on the subject of naming peculiarities, we might also make mention of our
friends the Vietnamese. As you may know, the usual practice with Oriental names is to put
the family name first, followed by the given name. The Vietnamese do it that way, too;
trouble is, Vietnam, in addition to its other privations, suffers from an acute lack of
variety in family names, with half the people in the country having "Nguyen"
stuck somewhere in their monikers. (I exaggerate, but not much.) Thus it has become common
and correct to refer to a Vietnamese by his or her given name: Nguyen Van Thieu, President
Thieu. A little tardy to find this out, I suppose, but better late than never.
--CECIL ADAMS
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