Today I'm gonna talk about names and surnames in Italy and Spain, and the traditions about it.
The first big difference between Italy and Spain is that Spanish people has two surnames, while in Italy you have just one.
There are two surnames because you will get the first one from your father and the second one from your mother, in Italy you just get your father's one.
The second difference is about names, in Spain is not unusual to call your baby after one of the parents; so if you have a boy, you call him as the father and if you have a little girl, you can name her as the mother. This happens because is almost impossible that even if you have your parent's name to become homonymous, for example my girlfriend have been called after her mom, but they don't have the same last name.
In Italy the tradition (almost in disuse nowadays) is to call your son/daughter after the grandparents, in fact, i have my grandfather's name; in this case names "skip" one generation.
Let's see some examples about it:
SPAIN:
- FATHER: Juan García Pérez
- MOTHER: María Fernández González
- SON: Juan García Fernández
- DAUGHTER: María García Fernández
You can see how even if both the children have the parent's name, they are not homonymous. Even if you get your parents' last names, is obvious how your mother's one is actually her father's surname.
ITALY:
- GRANDFATHER: Roberto Rossi
- GRANDMOTHER: Lucia Bianchi
- FATHER: Mario Rossi
- MOTHER: Giulia Verdi
- SON: Roberto Rossi
- DAUGHTER: Lucia Rossi
As you can see there's nothing related to the mother in the children's names, it's kind of a patriarcal tradition, but of course you can choose either your maternal/paternal grandfather/mother name for your baby.
In this case you see that the grandfather and the grandson are homonymous, this is pretty common in Italian tradition.
Well, it's all for now, tell me if you have different traditions in your country about names. Byee :)
