--- Srini Ramakrishnan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Tue, Apr 15, 2008 at 2:44 PM, > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Just use the Spanish system. It scales... > > and that would be, what?
In most of the Spanish speaking world, everyone has double-barrelled last names: for example, Maria Gomez Felix. In the US, they tend to hyphenate to aoid giving the impression that the first surname is a 'middle name'. By convention, we may infer that Maria's paternal surname is Gomez and maternal surname is Felix. There are exceptions, some people use the reverse order. In cases where the paternal surname is very common, the person may go by the maternal surnmae, i.e., the painter Picasso or the politician Zapatero. If Maria Gomez Felix marries Jose Ruiz Alvarado, their children would normally take the surnames Gomez and Ruiz; again, there are exceptions. For example, if the parents were Maria Perez Felix and Jose Perez Alvarado, the children may take the surnames Perez and Felix, or Perez and Alvarado. Of course, there are some pepple who use all four names, so you may well encounter Elena Perez Gomez Alvarado Felix. Plus, many hispanic people have two first names(not a 'middle name'), so when you see Javier Miguel Torres Gomez - you reasonably infer that Torres is his paternal surname and Gomez is his maternal surname; he may choose to go by either Javier or Miguel. cheers, Divya
