Why do people in mexico have 2 last names?

Question

Why do people in mexico have 2 last names?

Answer 1

I believe they take their Mother's maiden name and their father's name. I think it's a status symbol)

Answer 2

Ok so im Mexican American and for that person who said mexicans dont have middle names well newsflash they do. They keep their fathers last name and mothers. It isnt cuz everyone has the same name its just as a sign of respecet to your family and ancestors who have had that name.

Answer 3

They have their mother and father's last name and no middle name

Answer 4

In a country where half of the population has the following last names: Rodríguez, González, Perez, García, Martínez, Hernández or Gutiérrez and the most common names for guys are: Carlos, José, Fernando, Roberto, Rodrigo, Alejandro, Ignacio, etc... It makes sense that it can become confusing if you live in a small community and half of the male population is called José Gonzalez.

It's common here that if the first two names sound "good together", people will call that person by their two names all the time to avoid confusions. It's less probable you will confuse José Perez with José Miguel Perez or José Luis Perez.

Same with the second last name which is your mother's first last name when she was single (or in the case that you were born from a single mom, you keep the same last names as your mother's maiden names are). It makes things less confusing with all of the Gonzalez's everywhere. Plus it's one of the few non macho things about this country that America strangely lacks despite all of the political correctness movement and all.

Quite frankly I find it to be very machist American documents don't use your two last names to be honest.

Answer 5

BECAUSE this was the way spaniards did (and do) it.

As far as I know, when you ask "why" the answer starts with "beacuse".

Many explanations are kind of reasonable, but the actual and only reason is spanish tradition.

I agree with Héctor, it is FALSE that we do this because we don't have many last names, there are too many last names; the reason is SPANISH TRADITION and nothing else.

We have the name or names given by our parents, then our fathers first last name and then our mother's first last name. It used to happen that when a woman get married change her mother's last name (her second last name) for the husband's last name (his first last name); but in present time it is not as common as before.

Let me show you something funny. I have a friend who has this name:

Luis Antonio Servín de la Mora Martín del Campo.

Explanation:

"Luis Antonio": he has two names.

"Servín de la Mora": his father's last name.

"Martín del Campo": his mother's last name.

He lives in California (legal, by the way), he is called there:

"Luis Servín".

What a shame! hundreds of years of tradition just sended away!

If he gets married to a woman with last name "Smith", in México his sons would be:

"... Servín de la Mora Smith"

And his wife would be called (even it is not too common, it is still used):

"... Smith de Servín de la Mora"

Answer 6

Charlie answered good......

Answer 7

If you see the phone book you will find a lost of surnames... it is false that we have just a few lastnames......

The reason is the tradition... when a woman get married in USA, she looses her last name and adopts her husband's...

In México, it does not happen....The woman will take the last name of her husband as a second last name.... (i.e: MONICA GARZA DE GONZALEZ) so the children will do the same way, just first the father's lastname and then de mother's (DANIEL GONZALEZ GARZA).

It is a way to say that you are a son or a daugther of your father and mother....  it has always made sense to us....

It is a society more centered in mother than in father... even the father is the family head, the mother is more in the center of the scene always you talk about family....

In mexican society, the mother is always idolized, and this explains expressions as the love showed for the VIrgen de Guadalupe.

Answer 8

Although Hector is right--there are plenty of names in the Spanish telephone directories.  It is also true that during the early settlement of New Spain, there were whole communities with no more than a handful of family names, and families had a tendency to name their offspring after other family members.  I should know.  My family comes from Rincon de Romo near Aguascalientes, and the locals claim that even the rocks are called Romo--leading to much confusion.  Until the modern era, this continued to be true.  The Spanish custom of carrying the mother's family name forward at least one generation helped immensely, when church officials and other recordkeepers tried to keep things straight, but it was not designed for that purpose.

There is one more confusing piece to this story.  Not all combinations of the father's and mother's names were the same.  Sometimes they were reversed--especially when the family moved to the USA, where the last name is supposed to be the legal family name.

All-in-all, it is a heartwarming, respectful tradition that carries the mother's name forward into the next generation.  Unfortunately, in the end her family name is still lost when her son's grandchildren are born with a new mother's maiden name or when her daughter drops the mother's name after she adopts her husband's name.

In so many ways, it is still a "man's world."

Answer 9

they have their father's last name and their mother's maiden name.

Answer 10

i think that it's cuz when they get married, they adopt their partners last name's and keep theirs. idk. just guessing here.

Answer 11

the first one is the one from the father and the second one is from the mother. they also tend to name the oldest son as the father (first name) as well as naming the oldest daughter as the mother.

Answer 12

There is less of a variety of last names there than in the U.S.  Using their entire name makes it easier to differentiate between many people with the same name...like Juan Rodriquez.  this person would  use his first and second (middle) names, his fathers last name, then his mothes maiden name.  Juan Ricardo Rodriquez Morales.  This is the custom there and helps avoid confusion.    The actual "last" name is  Rodriquez and is called the "apellido".