Names in Spanish
A simple guide
Spanish names can be quite different from English. Some Spanish names are quite popular even in English. We’ll learn about all of these in this article.
Apellidos
First thing to discus is the naming conventions in regards to lastnames. Usually for Spanish speakers it is normal for people to have 2 last names.
The Spanish word for last name is Apellido. Listen to how it is said in the recording below.
The last names are from their mother(maternal) and father(paternal). The father’s apellido usually comes first and then the mother’s. Look at the diagram below.
When calling someone by their name it is normal to not include the second or maternal last name and only use the paternal name. In the example shown above we would only say “Pablo Garcia”.
Here is another example:
This example will bring us into the next thing we will talk about First names.
Nombre de Pila/Primer Nombre
Middle names are not used in Spanish. Whenever we see a person with 2 names like in the example above — Benito Antonio that means they are both the first names of the person. So Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio is the full name of this person. They have 2 first names and 2 last names.
Nombre de Pila means Christian name or given name. Primer Nombre means first name.
Listen to how they are said:
Here are a few first names in Spanish.
Conclusion
There are many more interesting Spanish names that I would recommend you learn as well. Spanish is interesting and there are so many cool things to learn!
