“This one signs with two surnames,” you can hear shouting in the Editorial Office. “On the web it comes out automatically, but on paper you have to put it in.” The one that signs with the two surnames is . I remember he told me when he signed his first article in the newspaper. And he reminded me of it in successive weeks, every time I forgot. But, in the end, we all learned that Joan Serra, journalist for SER Catalunya, always signs with both of his last names: Serra Carné. I never asked him why until this week. “Before I always signed with a last name, the first, but when my father got sick I thought that a nice way to pay tribute to my mother for how she was taking care of him was to also sign with the second last name. And since then I have done it that way. Because I wanted to dedicate it to my mother for all that process, which was so hard. This is the story, it has no more depth, but it is a detail to make visible everything that my mother has done.” Serra Carné is not the only one who uses his last name to pay tribute.
In it Seville newspaperthis 8M has been different. They took, with the impetus of the journalists Chantal de la Cruz and Ángeles Sánchez Bello: the signatures of the journalists appeared with the initial of the paternal surname and the full maternal surname, giving prominence to the second in recognition of the figure of mothers and the role of women in society. “It was an initiative that began on Friday until Sunday 8M. First we made sure that there were no technical problems that could make us miss traffic. Women are no longer invisible and this was our tribute to our mothers thanks to which we are a little more equal,” explains Stella Benot, editor-in-chief of the Seville newspaper. The newspaper itself reported in its pages that with this initiative, which they will repeat next year, they pay tribute “to the women who have had to give up more than others to reconcile, to those who dedicate a large part of their time to unpaid care and to those who perform essential tasks for the functioning of society. Likewise, it pays tribute to pregnant women who are judged for their decisions: whether they have children too early or too late.” To all.
The second surname lives on, in most cases. I know of few cases in which a mother manages to sneak it in front and it is always arguing danger of extinction. Salvador (not his real name) tells it: “My partner’s starting argument is that it was the only family in the community and that only 15 people had that last name, which ran the risk of being lost forever. I didn’t care, but I asked for more weight in choosing the name, there we were stuck until the delivery room itself.” His daughter bears the name he chose and her mother’s last name. Since June 30, 2017, the paternal surname no longer has preference over the maternal surname when registering a newborn in Spain. So the parents have to agree or the civil registrar will do it for them, but without the male having preeminence by default. This measure pursues “absolute equality between parents,” according to what the Ministry of Justice said at the time.
In Italy, for example, it is possible to choose the surname of the father, the mother or both (in agreed order) for children born after June 1, 2022. This rule was introduced by a ruling by the Constitutional Court, which declared the automatic attribution of only the father’s surname to be illegitimate. More interesting is the case of Portugal: there were no rigid rules. It was the Civil Registry Code of 1928 (and its update of 1932) that established that the last surname must necessarily be that of the father. By fixing the paternal surname at the end, by exclusion, the maternal surname began to occupy the previous position (the first after the given name), says Isaura, a friend and a Portuguese mother. “Now I understand the disorder of my surnames. My paternal grandfather, Portuguese, first had the surname of his father, of my great-grandfather, because he was born before 1928.” Isaura, 24 hours later, writes: “In Portugal and Brazil you can decide which branches of your family tree you want to honor. And now, thinking about it under this premise, I decide to use both surnames because it is a way to celebrate part of my lineage. We are 50/50. I am Isaura Madalena De Oliveira Portugal Do Vale.”
Despite the current facilities, couples in Spain have decided to put the maternal surname first, according to data from 2024. Very few people take the step. I have not been one of them.
