Names are a part of people’s essences and their identities. A name is the first label that a person is given as part of their identity. A name is a person’s life long label. Some names are given to people based on the culture or the country that they are born into. Names are words that people are known by. There are types of names there are American names, Irish names, Jewish names, Italian names, and Spanish names. There is much history behind the origin of some cultural names such as Spanish names. In most cultures the first born son is named after his father. The Christian faith usually believes that there should be a junior in the family. That is why most men want to have a son so that the son will carry forth the family’s last name and the father’s first name. One of the exceptions to this name rule regards Jewish names. In the Jewish culture, there is no custom to name the first born son after the father. Therefore, there are no juniors in Jewish families. Jewish culture believes that names should be unique, creative, and as individual as the people themselves. In addition, Jewish culture also believes that it is bad luck to name babies after a person who is still living because it is then believed that something bad will happen to the person that the baby was named after. However, there are many beautiful Jewish names such as Rachel and Ester and many Irish names such as Molly and Kara and many Spanish names such as Elia, Ricardo, and Carmen.

Did you know that in most Spanish, Portuguese, and Catalan-speaking regions of the world, people have at least two surnames? One surname is inherited from the father and the other surname is inherited from the father. Parents usually pass onto their children the name they from their father. In most Spanish speaking countries, the father’s surname is written before the mother’s surname; although there are sometimes exceptions to this rule. Therefore, Vicente Fox Quesada is Senor Fox which is Mister Fox in English but not senor Quesada and Fox is just another name. In Portuguese-speaking countries, the father’s surname in most cases is placed after the mother’s surname. In these types of countries, it is often that children get two surnames from each of their parents, therefore, having usually the last surname of each of their grandparents.

The traditional Spanish naming conventions are now changing and reverting to historical norms where surname conventions are more fluid so that Spanish names flow easily off the tongue. The change is being driven by the changes in attitude toward gender equality. Since 1977 in Portugal, children’s last names can come from either the mother or the father but the latter is still very uncommon. The laws in Spain have undergone a similar change; just like in Portugal it has had little effect on naming customs. Official Spanish records keep at most two forenames and two surnames per person. However, people can be baptized with more than two forenames, which is a frequent practice among royalty. This is true of English royalty because when Price William was born he was given many names even though people just call him William.

People can also keep track of more than two surnames. This is most frequently done in Spain’s Basque Country where there are many royals that have many Spanish names and lots of royal baby names Spanish.