#they’re a very complicated affair especially when you start bringing compound surnames into it

[borealalice]

In Spain do you take both you mother and fathers last name cause I love MotoGP and follow Marc Marquez and his full name is Marc Marquez Alenta so I assumed he’s got both his parents last names and I’ve seen it with other Spanish athletes, and if you have kids does the fathers or mothers last name get past on?

Yes! Everybody in Spain has two surnames (myself included hehe), because we get both our father’s first surname and our mother’s first surname. It’s important to note that Spanish women don’t take and historically have never taken their husband’s surname when they marry, they simply keep the two surnames they were given at birth. So in the end both parents maintain two sets of completely different surnames, and the kid gets the first from each set. As to which goes first, the father’s or the mother’s, it’s up to the parents to decide; though traditionally it’s usually the father’s that is put first. So, in Marc’s case, his surnames are Márquez i Alentà because his father’s first surname is Márquez, and his mother’s first surname is Alentà, and he inherited both.

This is also why Mr. F1 driver Carlos Sainz Vásquez de Castro Cenamor Rincón Rebollo Virto Moreno de Aranda Don Per Urrielagoira Pérez del Pulgar has so many surnames. It’s because you can simply follow the thread of your father’s second surname, then your mother’s second surname, then your paternal grandfather’s first surname, then your maternal grandmother’s first surname, then your paternal grandfather… all the way until you run out of family records, essentially. Even I end up with like 7 surnames if I start counting back 😋.

Hope this clarified it!