Re: Offlist: Re: Anthroponymics -- Brazilians have more than one surname? How are they assigned?

On 10/27/05, João Ricardo de Mendonça <somnicorvus@...> wrote:
>
> I understand that in US, Canada and Europe it is not usual for
> children to receive their mother's surname. Is this correct?

It's less usual, for sure.

The most usual case is (1) a married couple have the same surname, which (2)
their child inherits.
Historically this was always the father's birth surname, but that's not
necessarily true anymore. Hyphenated combinations of both pre-marital
surnames are pretty common. Less common is taking the mother's surname. Some
couples adopt an entirely new surname that is neither of their birth names.

It's not unusual for parents to not share a surname in common, however.
Besides the case of unmarried parents, it's not unusual for both spouses to
keep their name unchanged in a marriage. It's up to the parents to decide
what name the child gets, but in my experience it's usually the mother's
rather than the father's in this case.




--
Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>

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