The two surnames

How a name is built

1. el padre The father: Juan García Ruiz He passes on his first surname only: García.
2. la madre The mother: Ana López Soto She passes on her first surname only: López.
3. la hija The daughter: Lucía García López First surname from the father, second from the mother. Both appear on her identity card and every official paper.
4. casarse She marries Nothing changes. A woman keeps her two surnames all her life, just like a man. At school her mother is señora López, not señora García.
5. los nietos Her children They get García from Lucía and their father's first surname. López lasts one generation — unless a family chooses to put the mother's name first.

• In Spain every person has a first name and two surnames; the first usually comes from the father and the second from the mother.
• Nobody changes their surname on marrying in Spain. A woman keeps her two surnames all her life, just like a man.
• A 1999 law, in force from 2000, let parents put the mother's surname first if both agreed; since 2017 the law gives the father no priority at all and the parents choose the order. If they cannot agree, the Civil Registry decides in the child's interest.
• In practice almost all families still put the father's surname first: ministry figures published in 2021 showed only about 0.5% of babies with the mother's surname first.
• At eighteen, anybody can ask to have the order of their surnames swapped.

En España cada persona tiene un nombre y dos apellidos.

In Spain every person has a first name and two surnames.

Si el padre es Juan García Ruiz y la madre es Ana López Soto, su hija puede ser Lucía García López.

If the father is Juan García Ruiz and the mother is Ana López Soto, their daughter can be Lucía García López.

Al casarse, nadie cambia de apellido en España.

Nobody changes their surname on marrying in Spain.

Desde 2017, la ley ya no da preferencia al padre. Los padres eligen el orden.

Since 2017 the law no longer gives the father priority. The parents choose the order.

Which one people actually use

In daily life it is mostly the first surname that is used: el señor García, la doctora López. García is the most common surname in Spain — about 1.45 million people had it as their first surname in 2024 — followed by Rodríguez, González, Fernández and López. Most surnames in -ez mean 'son of': Rodríguez, son of Rodrigo.

When the first surname is very common, the second gets used instead. Federico García Lorca is simply Lorca; Pablo Ruiz Picasso signed with his mother's name because Ruiz was so common. Gabriel García Márquez is filed under G, not M: in any list, the order is by the first surname.

Some surnames carry de or del (De la Fuente, Del Río); some are compound with a hyphen (Pérez-Reverte); and sometimes a lower-case y links the two, as in Ortega y Gasset.

• In everyday life mostly the first surname is used: señor García, doctora López.
• García is the most common surname in Spain; according to the INE about 1.45 million people had it as their first surname in 2024.
• When the first surname is very common, the second is sometimes used: Lorca, Picasso.
• In a list, names are ordered by the first surname: García Márquez is filed under G.
• In Mexico the most common surname is Hernández; most surnames in -ez mean son of.

García es el apellido más común de España.

García is the most common surname in Spain.

Por eso, cuando el primero es muy común, a veces se usa el segundo.

So when the first one is very common, the second one is sometimes used.

Gabriel García Márquez es hijo de Gabriel García y de Luisa Márquez.

Gabriel García Márquez is the son of Gabriel García and Luisa Márquez.

Forms, and the second box

Spanish forms have two boxes: primer apellido and segundo apellido. If you have only one surname, write it in the first box and leave the second empty. A hotel receptionist may ask ¿Y el segundo apellido?; the answer is solo tengo un apellido.

Elsewhere: almost all of Spanish-speaking America uses two surnames too. In Argentina many people use only one in daily life. In Portugal and Brazil it is usually the other way round, with the father's surname last.

• Spanish forms have two boxes, first surname and second surname; with only one surname, fill the first and leave the second empty.
• Almost all of Spanish-speaking America also uses two surnames; in Argentina many people use only one in daily life; in Portugal and Brazil the father's surname usually goes last.

Solo tengo un apellido.

I only have one surname.

En casi toda Hispanoamérica también se usan dos apellidos.

In almost all of Spanish-speaking America two surnames are used too.