Dos Apellidos: When Families Have Two Surnames

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In reply to by Mel Kram (not verified)

Hi Mel. Thank you for reading! The answer to your second question is they'd be your first cousin once removed. Your children would be their second cousins.

Looking at the first part of your question, I am not finding an immediate answer. "E" and "da" are common prepositions you see in Portuguese surnames, but I am not finding a preposition or abbreviation for "R." You might find helpful information on the Familysearch page on Brazilian genealogy here:  https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Brazil_Personal_Names.

I will investigate further and keep you posted!

So if mother Hernandez Garcia and father Lopez Sanchez is then the child will be Lopez Garcia & the subsequent grandchild would be Lopez XXXXX ?

In reply to by Tony (not verified)

No, Tony, the child would be Lopez Hernandez. Yes the grandchild would be Lopez XXXX. The father’s and mother’s paternal last name gets passed to the child. The article makes it sound more complicated than it is, basically everyone in the world has two last names it’s just not customary to use both. It’s simple, a child takes the father’s last name and the mother’s maiden name so if your dad’s last name is Jones and your mom’s maiden name is Smith then your name is Tony Jones Smith. Your child’s name would be Child Jones YourWifeMaidenName.

Great article... the main problem of having two last names is how they are read or recognized in USA. As an example in the article, "Esperanza Hernández Rivera" will be called as Mrs. Rivera. Unfortunately her last name Hernandez will be recognized as her middle name. This can be a big challenge. I decided to dropped my second last name to avoid all kind of problems with my job, banks, etc. My mom was very sad that I erased her from my Id's but at the end she understood that it was the best for me and that doesn't meant I didn't love her family. Plus my full name will be in my passport and birth certificate for ever.

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