The surname allows members of the same family to be related.
The family name that allows people to be differentiated and identified is called a surname . It is an anthroponymic name that, together with the given name , makes it possible to distinguish each individual.
Origin of surnames
Surnames arose in the Middle Ages when members of the bourgeoisie began to access ownership of real estate and land . To prove the ownership of the goods through documentation , the first name was insufficient, so certain characteristics or particularities began to be added to favor identification .
In this way, the first surnames - many of which are still popular - had roots that were easily noticed. From the father 's given name , for example, patronymic surnames such as Domínguez (derived from Domingo ), Álvarez ( Álvaro ), Enríquez ( Enrique ), González ( Gonzalo ), Martínez ( Martín ) and Pérez ( Pedro ) were created.
The surnames of professions or trades , meanwhile, were related to an occupation: Squire , Barber , Jury , Colonel , Clerk , Shoemaker . Another possibility was that the surname was linked to a physical or personality trait , such as Bravo , Alegre , Calvo , Delgado or Moreno .
In the case of toponymic surnames , they came from the place where the person had property or lived ( Aragón , Burgos , Santander , Zaragoza ). There were also surnames related to natural elements or living beings , such as Coast , Hill , Lakes , Roses , Lamb and Wolves .
Different in each language
The examples mentioned have to do with Hispanic surnames . Each language had its own process of forming surnames: in English , to mention one case, the surname Johnson is common, which originally referred to John's son ( John-son ).
Similarly, there are some surnames that do not have a Hispanic origin, but that have been adopted through Castilianization , a transformation process that adapts them to our orthographic and phonetic rules. This has occurred in many immigration cases, due to the impossibility of writing or pronouncing foreign surnames. There are also surnames that in the past had very negative allusions, such as those given to slaves, and that are currently taken normally: a common example is Moreno , which refers to the person's skin color.
Registration and changes
The names and surnames of newborn children must be officially declared in the Civil Registry , although in each country the rules may be different. Let's take as a reference the laws of Spain, where there is a limit for the number of names (two maximum) and surnames (the first of the father and the first of the mother, resulting in two surnames). It is worth mentioning that currently parents can decide the order of their children's surnames , but until not long ago it was mandatory that the father's surname precede the mother's.
The surname does not define us, and that is why in many countries we can change it
It was on November 5, 1999 when this new option was legislated, typical of the increasingly less sexist and oppressive reality that we can see today. In any case, once the person reaches the age of majority, they have the right to request that the order of their surnames be altered. It should be noted that same-sex couples who adopt children can also choose the configuration of their surnames, in accordance with law 13/2005 promulgated on June 30.
Another characteristic worth mentioning of the legislation of Spain is that it gives the possibility of combining two surnames so that a compound surname arises. They usually take advantage of this in cases where they want an unusual surname to be maintained in subsequent generations, since it becomes part of the other as if they were one, which ensures that it will be used again later. Typically, the merge is done by placing a hyphen between the two.