How Many Family Names Do You Have? Naming Customs and Surname Diversity

[Etelfrido]

Here are some maps of naming conventions around the world. Which one does your name follow? I'm from the Portuguese tradition but here in Brazil some people also have one, three or even more family names.

In this one I think "Maternal/Paternal name" means the Maternal/Paternal surname, while "Father's name" is a Patronymic.



As for the one below, I'm not sure what the difference between a family name/surname and a clan name is.



Here one can also see which percentage of the population possesses the most common surnames in a few countries. Some countries do have more diversity of surname than others. I know that in Italy some family names can be almost exclusive to a small number of neighboring villages.



Do you have a common or a rare surname?

[Beowulf]

I use both Paternal and Maternal.

Paternal is from Aragon

and Maternal from France





Paternal is fairly common

but maternal is very uncommon here in Spain while is more common in NW France and can be found in England too

[Etelfrido]

Despite Portuguese ancestry being my major one I don't have Portuguese surnames. I have a German and an Italian one, though my Italian family name's also a word in Portuguese and it indeed exists as a Portuguese and Spanish surname too, so it works for two of my ancestries.

[Etelfrido]

Is it common for monarchs to have long names in other parts of the world?

Ours had pretty long ones.

[thatoneton]

A normal one (at least for the West) - a man has one surname which is inherited by his children, wheres a woman can keep hers after she's married in addition to the husband's surname. Or she may go by her husband's surname.

We however never have something like the Americans sometimes have, namely calling someone John III Smith or John Junior Smith.
Just name and surname - of course people many times are known by their nickname or a certain version of their name (only a diminutive etc.) when among friends or family.

[Beowulf]

Is it common for monarchs to have long names in other parts of the world?

Ours had pretty long ones.

I do have some ancestor and relatives with pretty long names like Luis Francisco de Paula Prieto Gamito or María Teresa Josefa Cayetana Juana de Acosta Montealegre.

or in my English side, Charles "de worcester" Rastell

[Etelfrido]

A normal one (at least for the West) - a man has one surname which is inherited by his children, wheres a woman can keep hers after she's married in addition to the husband's surname. Or she may go by her husband's surname.

We however never have something like the Americans sometimes have, namely calling someone John III Smith or John Junior Smith.
Just name and surname - of course people many times are known by their nickname or a certain version of their name (only a diminutive etc.) when among friends or family.

Here women either add the husband's surname or just keep theirs, but I don't think they replace their surname by the husband's. But most of the time they add the husband's family name.

Some people have Filho (son), Neto (grandson) and even Sobrinho (nephew) in their names, though the last one's rarer. Some people have Júnior too, which means son as well.

[Etelfrido]

I do have some ancestor and relatives with pretty long names like Luis Francisco de Paula Prieto Gamito or María Teresa Josefa Cayetana Juana de Acosta Montealegre.

or in my English side, Charles "de worcester" Rastell

All hail the Iberian naming tradition!

[thatoneton]

Here women either add the husband's surname or just keep theirs, but I don't think they replace their surname by the husband's. But most of the time they add the husband's family name.

Some people have Filho (son), Neto (grandson) and even Sobrinho (nephew) in their names, though the last one's rarer. Some people have Júnior too, which means son as well.

It also happens that a woman will only use hers but it's way less popular, because it's more problematic in practice, as she then has a different surname then her children, making it less obvious to identify her as their mother.

[Beowulf]

All hail the Iberian naming tradition!