The rule is like this: you traditionally get the first surname of each parent (which in turn is your grandads' first surnames, and so on). For example, if your father is called Pedro Aaaaa Bbbbb, and your mother's name is Laura Ccccccc Ddddd, then you would be called, e.g., Adrián Aaaaa Ccccccc.Isobel The Sorceress wrote:Wait. If a persons last name is a combination of his/her parents' last names, how do you choose which last names are given to the children? I assume you can only have two last names, but if your parents both already have two last names...In Spain we all have two last names, the father's last name and the mother's last name.
Is there are rule for this?
In Finland, kids are given only one last name, it can be the mother's or the father's. When you marry, you can either keep your own last name, take your spouses last name, or combine the last names. However, the kids can't take the combined last name.
But that supposedly gives priority to the men over the women (your grandmas' surnames get lost), so after feminist organizations' complaints, not so long ago they created a law that you can change the order of your surnames, putting the mother's name first. But anyways, I've never seen that in practice, the standard thing you see everyday is the order I told above.
