Names

An Introduction to Spanish Names
As is the case everywhere, modern Spanish names are a reflection of hundreds of years of history and culture, of outside influence and changing tastes. The way that Spanish naming custom works is that a person will have not one, but two Spanish surnames. These are made up of the first surname of the father and the mother (although in recent years this is sometimes reversed as a reflection of gender equality).

When referring to or talking to someone in a normal, day-to-day sense, it would be customary to simply use their first name and their first surname (be it their mother’s or father’s). As a general rule, the Spanish name in its entirety is only made use of in legal documents or other formal or written occasions.

The adoption of names differs from Spanish-speaking country to Spanish-speaking country, with many Latin American countries using a more American model.

Popular Spanish First Names
As anyone who has spent a little time in the country knows, two names have historically dominated (as a result of the country’s strong Catholic heritage): José and María. While the former is theoretically masculine and the latter feminine, it’s often the case that they are combined – with José María and María José both being extremely popular Spanish names.

Beyond that a variety of other religious names have always been popular – particularly amongst women; examples include Inmaculada, Concepción, Pilar and Encarnación. Saints names, too, have tended to predominate with some of the most popular being Juan, Ignacio and Francisco (Spanish boy names) and Teresa, Lucía and Monica (Spanish girls names).

Although these traditional religious-based names have become a little less popular in recent years (as the country follows the rest of Western Europe in becoming a little more secularised), the list of most popular Spanish names in recent years has still been dominated by religious/Saints’ names. Common recent examples include Santiago and Sebastián (for boys) and Sofia and Camila (for girls).

Names in the Autonomous Regions
In Galicia, the Basque Country and Catalonia, especially, names differ according to the different respective languages spoken. In each case, however, they do tend to have very similar onomastic roots – as you’d expect. As such, common Catalan names like Antoni, Francesc (or Cesc), Josep (or Pep), are all regional variations on their Castilian counterparts, Antonio, Francisco and José.

The Use of Nicknames in Spain
In addition to the shortening of names – Francisco becoming Paco and Ignacio becoming Nacho – in Spain, there’s a long tradition of the giving of nicknames. After all, one of Spain’s most famous historical figures, Miguel de Cervantes, was referred to as ‘El Manco de Lepanto’ (or the ‘One-armed Man from Lepanto’) after he lost his arm in a naval battle!

If you want to learn more about Spain and the Spanish culture check our Spanish culture section. Here, we provide interesting information about Spanish food, Spanish drinks, history, Spanish music and much more. For learning the Spanish language, we recommend our section about Learn Spanish. We offer basic language introductions, learning categories and different helpful methods to learn Spanish. As the historic region of Castille and Leon, is also best known for its language schools, we provide further information about the region on About Castille and Leon and on Spanish language schools you find all the schools ordered by location and cities with their Spanish center in Castille and Leon.