Chris BONDE wrote:
I think that I have seen some spanish names that use the 'of' such as French and Italian and Germany have, de, dala, von. Is this correct?
Yes, in Venezuela my mom's legal name is "Cristina de Carrera".
You see, Venezuela is a more patriarchical society than (say) North America - though less so than (say) the Middle East. The "of" is for married women and it means "the wife of". A more cynical mind might interpret it to mean "the property of", but I don't think that'd be a fair portrayal of Hispanic society. Latin America has the highest gender parity outside the developed world.
While we're on the topic of gender equality, here are some indicators:
Note 1: Values are percentagles comparing women to men. For example, in the table below, the life expectancy for Canadian women is 106% that of Canadian males.
Note 2: A - means "data not available.
Canada France Venezuela Life expenctancy 106 111 108 Adult literacy - - 99 Primary school 100 99 98 Secondary school 101 111 120
So, Venezuela's gender equality index is doing well. One place where Venezuela doesn't compare well to France and Canada is access to skilled personell at child birth.
The following table compares regions:
Developed World Latin America Life expenctancy 108 109 Adult literacy - 97 Primary school 100 98 Secondary school 103 106
Source: http://www.unicef.org/files/Table8.pdf
Cheers, Daniel.
