Spain is without doubt one of the few international locations on the planet during which girls do not change their surname after they get married.
Though in different cultures and international locations it’s the performed factor for ladies to take their husband’s surname, in Spain this has by no means been a authorized obligation or customized. In actual fact, to many Spanish girls the thought appears unusual. To others, it is downright offensive.
Many assume that this is because of a robust sense of feminist zeal current in Spanish society (which in some methods it’s and positively exists) however the actuality is that it is sophisticated and the custom is arguably not as progressive because it appears.
READ ALSO: Why do individuals in Spain have two surnames?
This could trigger concern amongst combined nationality {couples} desirous to stay in or transfer to Spain. May you modify your surname for those who wished to? Would it not be recognised by Spanish regulation?
Trying on the Spanish International Ministry recommendation on precisely this, the foundations appear fairly clear: “The change of surnames as a result of marriage isn’t supplied for in Spanish laws. On the time of registration of a wedding, the surnames will probably be those who seem on the start certificates of the contracting events, and in the identical order.”
Article 53 of Spain’s Civil Registry Legislation outlines the one cases during which modified surnames are acceptable (change of order, including prepositions, spelling corrections, and so forth) and marriage isn’t on the listing.
So, that is one easy reply. Merely put, Spanish girls do not change their surnames after they get married as a result of that course of is not even actually recognised by Spanish regulation.
So the place does it come from?
Spanish surnames
It’s not nearly marriage, after all. Names in Spain extra usually are totally different than you may be used to. As you’ve in all probability observed, most individuals in Spain (and lots of from Latin America too) have two surnames. Whereas within the UK or US we often solely have one surname, we’d have a center identify to make up for it.
In Spain, nevertheless, center names are uncommon and two surnames the norm.Â
New child infants right here virtually at all times tackle each the surnames of their mom and father, after which maintain them for the remainder of their lives — no matter whether or not they get married.
So why do Spanish girls not change their surnames after they get married?
There’s nobody reply to this query. There’s the actual fact the identify modifications aren’t recognised by Spanish regulation, after all, however to correctly perceive it we should think about a few different attainable explanations.
These embrace bureaucratic causes in addition to feminist sentiment, but in addition some consideration of whether or not or not the rule modifications of latest years (and naming traditions generally) are as progressive as they appear.
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Admin and bureaucratic concerns
One attainable clarification may boil all the way down to paperwork. Some historians counsel it may come from administrative considerations and desirous to keep away from pointless identify modifications (and thus paperwork) sooner or later.
Through the nineteenth-century Spain noticed the standardisation of names in order that inhabitants data, which till then had solely existed in parish data, may cross from the church to the state. In 1822 the primary civil register was arrange in Madrid, and by 1840 this had been performed in all the key provincial capitals. From 1871 it expanded to the entire inhabitants and in 1889 the Spanish Civil Code established using each the daddy’s and mom’s surnames for youngsters, because it nonetheless is right this moment.
So, in contrast to in different international locations, in Spain you have got two surnames from start and that does not change, no matter occurs, saving you administrative trouble down the road whenever you marry (or divorce).
It’s just about at all times been like this in Spain, too. There has by no means been a authorized requirement or cultural pattern for ladies to take their husband’s identify upon marrying. The one credible examples of this, or one thing near it, no less than, had been in previous Spanish the Aristocracy circles when some girls could have added de to their pre-existing two surnames, however that is uncommon.
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Feminist naming tendencies?
Others argue that the Spanish norm of not taking up the husband’s identify is an instance of deep feminist ideology in Spain.
This isn’t fully true.Â
After all, for a lot of españolas, giving up their identify and taking up the husband’s could be seen as akin to changing into property of their husband, one thing they’d by no means do anyway.
Nevertheless it’s usually believed that the customized comes from this, fairly than it being a byproduct of it. It is true that Spanish surname traditions are extra progressive and problem the patriarchal guidelines of different international locations, however in actuality even the Spanish custom of taking from the mom and father is in itself primarily based on male-inheritance.
When a child is born, it is going to take each its mom and father’s surname. Nevertheless, because it’s very possible their dad and mom are Spanish and due to this fact even have two surnames, the query arises as to which of their names the new child ought to take.
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Though Spanish infants do take a surname from their mom, it is virtually at all times the ‘male’ surname – that’s, the identify of their father, so the new child’s maternal grandfather – from each. That’s to say, the surnames which can be handed down are, albeit from each Mum and Dad, each from the male a part of the identify and aspect of the household.
This patrilineal naming custom was even Spanish regulation till 2000, and lots of nonetheless proceed the custom to this present day. When kids attain eighteen they’ll legally rearrange their names in the event that they want to however in response to El Diario a whopping 99.53 % of newborns nonetheless observe conference and take their father’s identify first.
This might be as a result of it was solely allowed if each dad and mom agreed, and within the occasion of a dispute the daddy’s identify was robotically put first.
Following additional reforms in 2017, infants born in Spain are actually not robotically given their father’s surname first, in a transfer that was thought of a victory for equal rights campaigners on the time.
Nevertheless, even when Spanish girls don’t take their husband’s identify after they marry, they’re nonetheless passing on their father’s identify to their kids ultimately.
READ ALSO: Spain overhauls custom of ‘sexist’ double-barrelled surnames
