History UsefulNotes / SpanishNamingConventions

** Music/RickyMartin, to some Enrique Martín Morales, the Puerto Rican singer who also sometimes acts ([[CastTheExpert often as a Puerto Rican singer]]), most famous for "Livin' La Vida Loca"

** Alexa Vega, actress from ''Film/SpyKids''

** Carlos Alcaraz, as of April 2023 the current world number 1 in men's tennis

** Also the first name of U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (Cuban father).

* May -- most likely from the Balaeric and Catala usage referring to something bigger or greater, pronounced like 'my'

** Golfer [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Rahm Jon Rahm]]

** The footballer Itziar Gurrutxaga Bengoetxea, another contestant for [[TheUnpronouncable seriously, are you sure that's a Latin name]][[note]]Actually easier than it looks once you learn that the sound rendered in Basque as "tx" is essentially the same as the English "ch" sound in "chair".[[/note]]

** David Ortiz, aka "Big Papi", now-retired Dominican [[UsefulNotes/HistoricalPeopleToKnowInMLB baseball star]], most notably with the Boston Red Sox

Note: This page uses the sub-headings "nombre" (given name) and "apellido" (surnames). As you'll learn from reading on, however, "last name" and "first name" are barely accurate at all, really.

* García -- the most common surname in Spain, and second in Mexico, Cuba and the Philippines, it derives from an old word meaning 'young'

** Creator/JorgeGarcia, a.k.a. Hurley from ''Series/{{LOST}}''

* Fernández -- means 'son of Fernando'

* González -- second most common surname in Spain, in the top 5 in Latin America, and 23rd in the United States, originally refers to fortifications but has been back-formed into the name Gonzalo and so can now mean 'son of Gonzalo'

* Rodríguez -- 'son of Rodrigo', has noble ties as it was originally granted to the royal family of Castille

* López -- 'son of Lope', with Lope meaning wolf

* Diaz -- 'son of Jacob'; as in, Diego can translate as James or Jacob, and in the old Diago variant that originated the surname it meant Jacob

* Pérez -- 'son of Pedro', the surname is also popular in Jewish families and so very popular among Sephardi Jews, but the name is no indicator of either being Jewish or Sephardic

* Gómez -- it comes from an old Germanic word meaning 'man'. Yep.

* Domínguez -- 'son of Domingo'

* Hernández -- 'son of Hernando', related to Fernández

* Ramírez -- 'son of Ramiro'

* Ruíz -- possibly comes from 'Rey', which means king, but even if not is typically a signifier of ancestral nobility

* Suárez -- 'son of Suero'

* Velazquez and Velez -- 'son of Velasco'

* Moreno -- from words for 'brown' and 'dark'

* Bravo -- from the original meaning of 'brave'
* Pena or Peña -- Spanish equivalent to various regional English 'cliff'/'crag'/'rocky'

* Cortés -- 'courteous'

* Grand or Grande -- 'big'

* Vega -- '(one who lives on/in) the open land'

* Calderón -- 'tinker' (as in ''Literature/TinkerTailorSoldierSpy'')

* Herrera and Herrero -- 'blacksmith'

* Romero -- 'gypsy'

* Mendoza and Mendez/Menendez -- mendoza is the Basque word for 'cold mountain', and is the root for the name Mendo and its derivative Menendo, with Mendez being 'son of Mendo'

* Morales -- 'son of those who live near fruitful bushes'

* Torres -- 'towers', the 50th most popular surname in the United States

* Iglesias -- 'churches', often given to orphans and those of low birth who were left to the care of the Church. Has a somewhat archaic variant form "Yglesias" still in use in some regions and their descendants (e.g. Galicia).

* de la Cruz -- 'of the Cross', similar in nomination to Iglesias as the people were believed to have been saved from juvenile death by the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross

** José de la Cruz, also known as Huseng Sisiw, was a Filipino writer that was dubbed as the 'King of the poets'
* Ortiz and Ortega -- 'son of Orti' and 'from the place of nettles', with the name Orti deriving from the word for nettles

* Castro -- 'Chester', with Chester being an Anglicization of the word, meaning fortified town

Spanish is one of the most commonly spoken languages in the world (second to only Mandarin Chinese in the number of first-language speakers and only to English and Mandarin Chinese in the number of total speakers). Moreover, the Hispanosphere has a long history of interaction ([[UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars the good]], [[UsefulNotes/AngloSpanishWar15851604 the]] [[UsefulNotes/MexicanAmericanWar bad]], [[UsefulNotes/SpanishAmericanWarsOfIndependence the mixed]], and [[UsefulNotes/TheMexicanRevolution the ambiguous]]) and still have frequent cultural and economic exchanges. It's thus no surprise that Latin/Hispanic cultures are among the most common non-Anglo cultures represented in English-language media. (And other European media--probably.) For these reasons, many may falsely assume that various Spanish cultures and traditions are similar or identical to Anglo-American ones, with only more [[TheCartel drugs]], [[{{Bandito}} crime]], and [[DashingHispanic really]] [[SpicyLatina attractive]] [[LatinLover people]]. However, this is not the case. One of the most obvious things to get wrong is the names you give to people being inappropriate for the time/location, misgendered, or just plain incorrect. The one thing many {{comed|y}}ies, especially, often do get right is [[OverlyLongName the length many names can be]], typically for laughs. Unfortunately, a lot of media relies on reusing {{Stock Foreign Name}}s without checking if they're appropriate. Hopefully, this page will help you out more than that.

!Central America

!!UsefulNotes/{{Nicaragua}}
In general, there are two factors that majorly affect Nicaraguan naming schemes: the ethnic diversity of the country, and politics. While the political elite is largely mestizo, there are to this day notable indigenous and Afro-descended groups that speak indigenous languages and creole English, mostly in the Eastern half of the country. While many families gave their kids conservative, biblical names akin to Francoist Spain until the Sandinista Revolution of 1979, since then Russian derived "communist" names -- and in more recent times, "American" names -- have become popular. However, it is often that not all Nicaraguans fully understand the cultural origin of the name and as such last names may be used as first names, [[SpellMyNameWithAnS uncommon spellings]] and mispronunciations abound.

!!!Nombres
It is often easy to at least somewhat pinpoint when somebody was born and which political leanings their parents had at the time. If they have a "pedestrian" Spanish name like José, Juan, Luis or the likes, they were likely born before the 1979 revolution. If they have a name like "Lenin", "Mijail" (varying spelllings, sometimes also "Mikhail") or the likes, they were likely born in the 1980s. If they have a name one cannot really place, they might've been born in the 1990s or later. These days it is not uncommon to give a "weird" first name and a "normal" middle name, such as "Beyton Francisco" or "Mayela Luisa". Younger couples also take to PortmanteauCoupleName for their kid, creating a new name by smoshing together the name of the parents. American names, or in some cases [[EaglelandOsmosis what Nicaraguans think are American names]] have also become popular since the end of the Contra War, giving rise to such bizarre concoctions as "Ruswel" (a phonetic spelling of a mispronunciation of [[UsefulNotes/ThePresidentsOfTheUnitedStates Teddy or FDR]]). "Bismarck" is another not unheard of first name, as is Daisy.

Nicaragua has for a long time been some form of HereditaryRepublic and as such "last names" carried a lot of weight. The unquestionably most important family on the national level were, for most of the 19th century and the early 20th century, the Chamorros, who had several of their number rise to the presidency or take high positions in business or journalism. The Somozas were initially the equivalent of minor nobility, but managed to eke out a family dictatorship from the 1930s to the aforementioned 1979 revolution. However, their family name is -- for understandable reasons -- mud. Nicaragua also had a small but significant German descendant minority, who primarily settled in the North of the country and got active in the coffee business. If somebody has a German sounding last name, they may be connected to that heritage. Somoza "fought" in World War 2 by expropriating many German-Nicaraguans for alleged or real Nazi sympathies.

!!!Nicknames
Nicaraguans love getting nicknames, but due to the rather uncommon first names (and hence difficulty to use "standard" nicknames) and the often sprawling and tightly knit families making last name-based nicknames impractical, nicknames are often based on outwards appearance. They may be rather direct (ex-president Arnoldo Aleman is known as "El Gordo" due to his rotundness) and sometimes {{ironic|Nickname}}, calling somebody exactly the thing they ''aren't''. A common word that even casual white skinned visitors to Nicaragua are bound to hear is "chele", apparently derived from "leche" (milk) with the syllables turned around, which is used for light skinned people, particularly light skinned foreigners or, in some cases, dark skinned people in irony.

%%!!Central America

!Caribbean

!!UsefulNotes/{{Cuba}}

!!!Apellidos
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/apellidos_cuba.png]]
Cuba is one of the countries that more commonly includes longer surnames in two ways: it retains a lot of the long singular names from colonial periods when many other Latin American countries have not, and it is one of the countries (along with much of Central America) that commonly includes grandparent/ancestral/lineage surnames in addition to father's and mother's.

Honestly, who let Cuba come up with their own rules? This gets messy. The short version is that the nation's tradition seems to be rooted in misogyny, as in practical usage most men go by an inherited family name and women go by either their father's name, their husband's name, or both. Ironically, actual full surnames are very hefty and can be strangely ordered. The base of taking surnames is the typical Latin American pattern of your father's, your mother's, your paternal grandmother's, your maternal grandmother's (which can be rephrased many ways because lots of your relatives will have all these names in various different orders), but something funny happens when it comes to marriage, at least traditionally and commonly persisting in several (even modern American) communities. The woman's first surname -- the one from her father and his father, etc. -- gets bumped to the end of her inherited names. This actually makes quite a lot of sense, at least in terms of women being viewed as property. The last 'name' to be seen, typically the easiest part to remember, will be [father's name] de [husband's name], which is in short saying that she belongs to these two men. At this point, the rest of the surname may be discounted or just fairly simple to use with the woman's given names, the ending now most important.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/apellidos_odaat3.png]]
Take the example of the remake of ''Series/{{One Day at a Time|2017}}'', about a Cuban-American family, and [[ShownTheirWork with a Cuban-American showrunner]]. Lydia is the mother of Penelope, who is the mother of Elena. We have Lydia's full name, Lydia Margarita Del Carmen Inclan Maribona Leytevidal de Riera, and Elena's full name, Elena Maria Alvarez Riera Calderón Leytevidal Inclan. In parts: [Inclan] [Maribona] [Leytevidal] de [Riera] and [Alvarez] [Riera] [Calderón] [Leytevidal] [Inclan]. Because Lydia has been married, her father's name is Leytevidal, which makes it Penelope's mother's (i.e. Lydia) name, so Penelope's name (since she has also been married) will start [Leytevidal]. From Elena's name, Alvarez is her father, Penelope's husband, so Penelope's name will end with de [Alvarez]; Lydia's husband's name is Riera, and this is also Elena's mother's name, so it is Penelope's father's name and will come before as [Riera] de [Alvarez]. From Elena's name, Calderón comes from her paternal grandmother, her father's side, and so won't appear in Penelope's name. Similarly, in Lydia's name, Maribona is her grandmother's surname and theoretically too far removed for Penelope to inherit it, though this isn't unheard of (and it is evident that Elena was given such a name, likely connecting with the matriarchy displayed in the show). Inclan is Penelope's grandmother's name, so it will appear 'last' in her name, as [Inclan] [Riera] de [Alvarez]. Unfortunately, we don't know Penelope's father's full name to work out what would come before Inclan, leaving her unmarried name as [Riera] [Leytevidal] [?] [Inclan], and her married name as [Leytevidal] [?] [Inclan] [Riera] de [Alvarez]. A fun (actually, difficult and taxing) exercise is to apply this to work out other peoples' names from their relatives; it also helps prove the point that 1. it works, 2. it's hard, 3. why, Cuba, why?!
%%

* '''Ricky''' -- an Anglicized nickname for Enrique, and one that can confuse: Enrique is not Spanish for Richard, it's Spanish for Henry. Again, while it exists in Spain, it is more popular in the Americas. It's also a Catalan nickname for Ricard, as in the case of current [[UsefulNotes/NationalBasketballAssociation NBA]] player Ricky Rubio.

There are some names that will not be used very often, however. Francisco is one of these, thanks to the dictator UsefulNotes/FranciscoFranco who, for the unaware, ''scared Hitler'' and was basically running Spain like North Korea. Similarly José Antonio used to be a common name during Francoism because it alluded to the founder of the Falange, José Antonio Primo de Rivera, but is no longer commonly used. Blanca is not very common in Spain, though it is in the Americas, and is a sure sign that a writer is American if it crops up. Similarly, Sofía is not particularly uncommon in Spain, but nowhere near as popular as it is in the Americas (where it's been solid at number one since about 2010). The girl's name Macarena fell out of favor after [[Music/LosDelRio the song]] (it's not exactly complimentary), but was on the way out, anyway.

** Series/AguilaRoja star, David Janer.

* Álvaro -- uncertain origin, but may come from the Old Norse word for mythical elf warriors

** The Armada admiral, Marquis Álvaro de Bazán (de Santa Cruz), for whom many Spanish naval ships have since been named

* Carlos -- translates as Charles, basically just means 'man'
** Many Spanish kings

* Felipe/Philip -- meaning 'friend of horses'
** Many more Spanish kings (coincidentally how they named the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}), including the current one, King Felipe VI

** A lot of kings

* Julio -- meaning 'July', but really just the Spanish form of "Julius"; unlike most of the rest of (Western)[[note]]The West Slavs in Central Europe also still go for it on occasion[[/note]] Europe, this name remains in relatively common use in Spain (and elsewhere in the hispanosphere).

* Antonio -- translates as Anthony, theoretically means 'son of Hercules' (as in the literal son of the literal demigod), but this was claimed by UsefulNotes/MarkAntony, and probably isn't true. The literal meaning is 'flower', so one can see why he'd make it up -- didn't stop people from believing and repeating it for centuries, though.

* Iker -- actually a Basque name, but has become more popular, and was originated in the false history ''Deun-Ixendegi Euzkotarra'' by Creator/SabinoArana, as an attempt to invent new Basque names to distance them from typical Latin names

* Asier -- another Basque origin name, but this one wasn't made up, and means 'the beginning'

* Carmen -- has two separate origins: 1. a woeful song (Latin), 2. God's vineyard (Hebrew). Both could theoretically occur at the same time.

* Elena -- from the Greek Helen, meaning 'light' and 'beautiful'. It is seen as a first or standalone given name frequently, though more commonly in the Americas than in Spain, but is also very frequently seen after María to form the given name María Elena.

* Isabella and Isabel -- a form of the name Elisabeth, means something vaguely like 'I swear to God', and in its original Hebrew origin 'gift of God'

* Alba -- meaning 'dawn' (note: in Scottish, it means Scotland, don't confuse the two)

Another issue is that any single surname can itself already be a barrelled name. Wiki/TheOtherWiki uses the example of Juan Pablo Fernández de Calderón García-Iglesias, where "Fernández de Calderón" is one surname, and "García-Iglesias" is the other. This is something which does happen in other cultural naming practices, including English (though, whilst very common in Britain, it is largely uncommon in the United States). Because 'de' can function in given names and for signifying marriage, also, and because there is significant overlap in what may be used as a given name and surname, there are many situations where knowing what name is what name can be hard. Another connector of names in a surname is 'y' or 'i'[[labelnote:*]]more Catalan[[/labelnote]] or 'e'[[labelnote:*]]when the second name to be joined begins with an "ee" sound[[/labelnote]], and can be used both between two single surnames or two barrelled surnames.

!Caribbean

!!UsefulNotes/{{Cuba}}

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/apellidos_cuba.png]]
Cuba is one of the countries that more commonly includes longer surnames in two ways: it retains a lot of the long singular names from colonial periods when many other Latin American countries have not, and it is one of the countries (along with much of Central America) that commonly includes grandparent/ancestral/lineage surnames in addition to father's and mother's.

Honestly, who let Cuba come up with their own rules? This gets messy. The short version is that the nation's tradition seems to be rooted in misogyny, as in practical usage most men go by an inherited family name and women go by either their father's name, their husband's name, or both. Ironically, actual full surnames are very hefty and can be strangely ordered. The base of taking surnames is the typical Latin American pattern of your father's, your mother's, your paternal grandmother's, your maternal grandmother's (which can be rephrased many ways because lots of your relatives will have all these names in various different orders), but something funny happens when it comes to marriage, at least traditionally and commonly persisting in several (even modern American) communities. The woman's first surname -- the one from her father and his father, etc. -- gets bumped to the end of her inherited names. This actually makes quite a lot of sense, at least in terms of women being viewed as property. The last 'name' to be seen, typically the easiest part to remember, will be [father's name] de [husband's name], which is in short saying that she belongs to these two men. At this point, the rest of the surname may be discounted or just fairly simple to use with the woman's given names, the ending now most important.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/apellidos_odaat3.png]]
Take the example of the remake of ''Series/{{One Day at a Time|2017}}'', about a Cuban-American family, and [[ShownTheirWork with a Cuban-American showrunner]]. Lydia is the mother of Penelope, who is the mother of Elena. We have Lydia's full name, Lydia Margarita Del Carmen Inclan Maribona Leytevidal de Riera, and Elena's full name, Elena Maria Alvarez Riera Calderón Leytevidal Inclan. In parts: [Inclan] [Maribona] [Leytevidal] de [Riera] and [Alvarez] [Riera] [Calderón] [Leytevidal] [Inclan]. Because Lydia has been married, her father's name is Leytevidal, which makes it Penelope's mother's (i.e. Lydia) name, so Penelope's name (since she has also been married) will start [Leytevidal]. From Elena's name, Alvarez is her father, Penelope's husband, so Penelope's name will end with de [Alvarez]; Lydia's husband's name is Riera, and this is also Elena's mother's name, so it is Penelope's father's name and will come before as [Riera] de [Alvarez]. From Elena's name, Calderón comes from her paternal grandmother, her father's side, and so won't appear in Penelope's name. Similarly, in Lydia's name, Maribona is her grandmother's surname and theoretically too far removed for Penelope to inherit it, though this isn't unheard of (and it is evident that Elena was given such a name, likely connecting with the matriarchy displayed in the show). Inclan is Penelope's grandmother's name, so it will appear 'last' in her name, as [Inclan] [Riera] de [Alvarez]. Unfortunately, we don't know Penelope's father's full name to work out what would come before Inclan, leaving her unmarried name as [Riera] [Leytevidal] [?] [Inclan], and her married name as [Leytevidal] [?] [Inclan] [Riera] de [Alvarez]. A fun (actually, difficult and taxing) exercise is to apply this to work out other peoples' names from their relatives; it also helps prove the point that 1. it works, 2. it's hard, 3. why, Cuba, why?!

!Central America

!!UsefulNotes/{{Nicaragua}}
In general, there are two factors that majorly affect Nicaraguan naming schemes: the ethnic diversity of the country, and politics. While the political elite is largely mestizo, there are to this day notable indigenous and Afro-descended groups that speak indigenous languages and creole English, mostly in the Eastern half of the country. While many families gave their kids conservative, biblical names akin to Francoist Spain until the Sandinista Revolution of 1979, since then Russian derived "communist" names -- and in more recent times, "American" names -- have become popular. However, it is often that not all Nicaraguans fully understand the cultural origin of the name and as such last names may be used as first names, [[SpellMyNameWithAnS uncommon spellings]] and mispronunciations abound.

!!!Nombres
It is often easy to at least somewhat pinpoint when somebody was born and which political leanings their parents had at the time. If they have a "pedestrian" Spanish name like José, Juan, Luis or the likes, they were likely born before the 1979 revolution. If they have a name like "Lenin", "Mijail" (varying spelllings, sometimes also "Mikhail") or the likes, they were likely born in the 1980s. If they have a name one cannot really place, they might've been born in the 1990s or later. These days it is not uncommon to give a "weird" first name and a "normal" middle name, such as "Beyton Francisco" or "Mayela Luisa". Younger couples also take to PortmanteauCoupleName for their kid, creating a new name by smoshing together the name of the parents. American names, or in some cases [[EaglelandOsmosis what Nicaraguans think are American names]] have also become popular since the end of the Contra War, giving rise to such bizarre concoctions as "Ruswel" (a phonetic spelling of a mispronunciation of [[UsefulNotes/ThePresidentsOfTheUnitedStates Teddy or FDR]]). "Bismarck" is another not unheard of first name, as is Daisy.

!!!Apellidos
Nicaragua has for a long time been some form of HereditaryRepublic and as such "last names" carried a lot of weight. The unquestionably most important family on the national level were, for most of the 19th century and the early 20th century, the Chamorros, who had several of their number rise to the presidency or take high positions in business or journalism. The Somozas were initially the equivalent of minor nobility, but managed to eke out a family dictatorship from the 1930s to the aforementioned 1979 revolution. However, their family name is -- for understandable reasons -- mud. Nicaragua also had a small but significant German descendant minority, who primarily settled in the North of the country and got active in the coffee business. If somebody has a German sounding last name, they may be connected to that heritage. Somoza "fought" in World War 2 by expropriating many German-Nicaraguans for alleged or real Nazi sympathies.

!!!Nicknames
Nicaraguans love getting nicknames, but due to the rather uncommon first names (and hence difficulty to use "standard" nicknames) and the often sprawling and tightly knit families making last name-based nicknames impractical, nicknames are often based on outwards appearance. They may be rather direct (ex-president Arnoldo Aleman is known as "El Gordo" due to his rotundness) and sometimes {{ironic|Nickname}}, calling somebody exactly the thing they ''aren't''. A common word that even casual white skinned visitors to Nicaragua are bound to hear is "chele", apparently derived from "leche" (milk) with the syllables turned around, which is used for light skinned people, particularly light skinned foreigners or, in some cases, dark skinned people in irony.
%%
%%!!Central America

!Central America

!!UsefulNotes/{{Nicaragua}}
In general, there are two factors that majorly affect Nicaraguan naming schemes: the ethnic diversity of the country, and politics. While the political elite is largely mestizo, there are to this day notable indigenous and Afro-descended groups that speak indigenous languages and creole English, mostly in the Eastern half of the country. While many families gave their kids conservative, biblical names akin to Francoist Spain until the Sandinista Revolution of 1979, since then Russian derived "communist" names -- and in more recent times, "American" names -- have become popular. However, it is often that not all Nicaraguans fully understand the cultural origin of the name and as such last names may be used as first names, [[SpellMyNameWithAnS uncommon spellings]] and mispronunciations abound.

!!!Nombres
It is often easy to at least somewhat pinpoint when somebody was born and which political leanings their parents had at the time. If they have a "pedestrian" Spanish name like José, Juan, Luis or the likes, they were likely born before the 1979 revolution. If they have a name like "Lenin", "Mijail" (varying spelllings, sometimes also "Mikhail") or the likes, they were likely born in the 1980s. If they have a name one cannot really place, they might've been born in the 1990s or later. These days it is not uncommon to give a "weird" first name and a "normal" middle name, such as "Beyton Francisco" or "Mayela Luisa". Younger couples also take to PortmanteauCoupleName for their kid, creating a new name by smoshing together the name of the parents. American names, or in some cases [[EaglelandOsmosis what Nicaraguans think are American names]] have also become popular since the end of the Contra War, giving rise to such bizarre concoctions as "Ruswel" (a phonetic spelling of a mispronunciation of [[UsefulNotes/ThePresidentsOfTheUnitedStates Teddy or FDR]]). "Bismarck" is another not unheard of first name, as is Daisy.

Nicaragua has for a long time been some form of HereditaryRepublic and as such "last names" carried a lot of weight. The unquestionably most important family on the national level were, for most of the 19th century and the early 20th century, the Chamorros, who had several of their number rise to the presidency or take high positions in business or journalism. The Somozas were initially the equivalent of minor nobility, but managed to eke out a family dictatorship from the 1930s to the aforementioned 1979 revolution. However, their family name is -- for understandable reasons -- mud. Nicaragua also had a small but significant German descendant minority, who primarily settled in the North of the country and got active in the coffee business. If somebody has a German sounding last name, they may be connected to that heritage. Somoza "fought" in World War 2 by expropriating many German-Nicaraguans for alleged or real Nazi sympathies.

!!!Nicknames
Nicaraguans love getting nicknames, but due to the rather uncommon first names (and hence difficulty to use "standard" nicknames) and the often sprawling and tightly knit families making last name-based nicknames impractical, nicknames are often based on outwards appearance. They may be rather direct (ex-president Arnoldo Aleman is known as "El Gordo" due to his rotundness) and sometimes {{ironic|Nickname}}, calling somebody exactly the thing they ''aren't''. A common word that even casual white skinned visitors to Nicaragua are bound to hear is "chele", apparently derived from "leche" (milk) with the syllables turned around, which is used for light skinned people, particularly light skinned foreigners or, in some cases, dark skinned people in irony.

%%!!Central America

!Caribbean

!!UsefulNotes/{{Cuba}}

!!!Apellidos
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/apellidos_cuba.png]]
Cuba is one of the countries that more commonly includes longer surnames in two ways: it retains a lot of the long singular names from colonial periods when many other Latin American countries have not, and it is one of the countries (along with much of Central America) that commonly includes grandparent/ancestral/lineage surnames in addition to father's and mother's.

Honestly, who let Cuba come up with their own rules? This gets messy. The short version is that the nation's tradition seems to be rooted in misogyny, as in practical usage most men go by an inherited family name and women go by either their father's name, their husband's name, or both. Ironically, actual full surnames are very hefty and can be strangely ordered. The base of taking surnames is the typical Latin American pattern of your father's, your mother's, your paternal grandmother's, your maternal grandmother's (which can be rephrased many ways because lots of your relatives will have all these names in various different orders), but something funny happens when it comes to marriage, at least traditionally and commonly persisting in several (even modern American) communities. The woman's first surname -- the one from her father and his father, etc. -- gets bumped to the end of her inherited names. This actually makes quite a lot of sense, at least in terms of women being viewed as property. The last 'name' to be seen, typically the easiest part to remember, will be [father's name] de [husband's name], which is in short saying that she belongs to these two men. At this point, the rest of the surname may be discounted or just fairly simple to use with the woman's given names, the ending now most important.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/apellidos_odaat3.png]]
Take the example of the remake of ''Series/{{One Day at a Time|2017}}'', about a Cuban-American family, and [[ShownTheirWork with a Cuban-American showrunner]]. Lydia is the mother of Penelope, who is the mother of Elena. We have Lydia's full name, Lydia Margarita Del Carmen Inclan Maribona Leytevidal de Riera, and Elena's full name, Elena Maria Alvarez Riera Calderón Leytevidal Inclan. In parts: [Inclan] [Maribona] [Leytevidal] de [Riera] and [Alvarez] [Riera] [Calderón] [Leytevidal] [Inclan]. Because Lydia has been married, her father's name is Leytevidal, which makes it Penelope's mother's (i.e. Lydia) name, so Penelope's name (since she has also been married) will start [Leytevidal]. From Elena's name, Alvarez is her father, Penelope's husband, so Penelope's name will end with de [Alvarez]; Lydia's husband's name is Riera, and this is also Elena's mother's name, so it is Penelope's father's name and will come before as [Riera] de [Alvarez]. From Elena's name, Calderón comes from her paternal grandmother, her father's side, and so won't appear in Penelope's name. Similarly, in Lydia's name, Maribona is her grandmother's surname and theoretically too far removed for Penelope to inherit it, though this isn't unheard of (and it is evident that Elena was given such a name, likely connecting with the matriarchy displayed in the show). Inclan is Penelope's grandmother's name, so it will appear 'last' in her name, as [Inclan] [Riera] de [Alvarez]. Unfortunately, we don't know Penelope's father's full name to work out what would come before Inclan, leaving her unmarried name as [Riera] [Leytevidal] [?] [Inclan], and her married name as [Leytevidal] [?] [Inclan] [Riera] de [Alvarez]. A fun (actually, difficult and taxing) exercise is to apply this to work out other peoples' names from their relatives; it also helps prove the point that 1. it works, 2. it's hard, 3. why, Cuba, why?!
%%

!Caribbean

!!UsefulNotes/{{Cuba}}

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/apellidos_cuba.png]]
Cuba is one of the countries that more commonly includes longer surnames in two ways: it retains a lot of the long singular names from colonial periods when many other Latin American countries have not, and it is one of the countries (along with much of Central America) that commonly includes grandparent/ancestral/lineage surnames in addition to father's and mother's.

Honestly, who let Cuba come up with their own rules? This gets messy. The short version is that the nation's tradition seems to be rooted in misogyny, as in practical usage most men go by an inherited family name and women go by either their father's name, their husband's name, or both. Ironically, actual full surnames are very hefty and can be strangely ordered. The base of taking surnames is the typical Latin American pattern of your father's, your mother's, your paternal grandmother's, your maternal grandmother's (which can be rephrased many ways because lots of your relatives will have all these names in various different orders), but something funny happens when it comes to marriage, at least traditionally and commonly persisting in several (even modern American) communities. The woman's first surname -- the one from her father and his father, etc. -- gets bumped to the end of her inherited names. This actually makes quite a lot of sense, at least in terms of women being viewed as property. The last 'name' to be seen, typically the easiest part to remember, will be [father's name] de [husband's name], which is in short saying that she belongs to these two men. At this point, the rest of the surname may be discounted or just fairly simple to use with the woman's given names, the ending now most important.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/apellidos_odaat3.png]]
Take the example of the remake of ''Series/{{One Day at a Time|2017}}'', about a Cuban-American family, and [[ShownTheirWork with a Cuban-American showrunner]]. Lydia is the mother of Penelope, who is the mother of Elena. We have Lydia's full name, Lydia Margarita Del Carmen Inclan Maribona Leytevidal de Riera, and Elena's full name, Elena Maria Alvarez Riera Calderón Leytevidal Inclan. In parts: [Inclan] [Maribona] [Leytevidal] de [Riera] and [Alvarez] [Riera] [Calderón] [Leytevidal] [Inclan]. Because Lydia has been married, her father's name is Leytevidal, which makes it Penelope's mother's (i.e. Lydia) name, so Penelope's name (since she has also been married) will start [Leytevidal]. From Elena's name, Alvarez is her father, Penelope's husband, so Penelope's name will end with de [Alvarez]; Lydia's husband's name is Riera, and this is also Elena's mother's name, so it is Penelope's father's name and will come before as [Riera] de [Alvarez]. From Elena's name, Calderón comes from her paternal grandmother, her father's side, and so won't appear in Penelope's name. Similarly, in Lydia's name, Maribona is her grandmother's surname and theoretically too far removed for Penelope to inherit it, though this isn't unheard of (and it is evident that Elena was given such a name, likely connecting with the matriarchy displayed in the show). Inclan is Penelope's grandmother's name, so it will appear 'last' in her name, as [Inclan] [Riera] de [Alvarez]. Unfortunately, we don't know Penelope's father's full name to work out what would come before Inclan, leaving her unmarried name as [Riera] [Leytevidal] [?] [Inclan], and her married name as [Leytevidal] [?] [Inclan] [Riera] de [Alvarez]. A fun (actually, difficult and taxing) exercise is to apply this to work out other peoples' names from their relatives; it also helps prove the point that 1. it works, 2. it's hard, 3. why, Cuba, why?!

!Central America

!!UsefulNotes/{{Nicaragua}}
In general, there are two factors that majorly affect Nicaraguan naming schemes: the ethnic diversity of the country, and politics. While the political elite is largely mestizo, there are to this day notable indigenous and Afro-descended groups that speak indigenous languages and creole English, mostly in the Eastern half of the country. While many families gave their kids conservative, biblical names akin to Francoist Spain until the Sandinista Revolution of 1979, since then Russian derived "communist" names -- and in more recent times, "American" names -- have become popular. However, it is often that not all Nicaraguans fully understand the cultural origin of the name and as such last names may be used as first names, [[SpellMyNameWithAnS uncommon spellings]] and mispronunciations abound.

!!!Nombres
It is often easy to at least somewhat pinpoint when somebody was born and which political leanings their parents had at the time. If they have a "pedestrian" Spanish name like José, Juan, Luis or the likes, they were likely born before the 1979 revolution. If they have a name like "Lenin", "Mijail" (varying spelllings, sometimes also "Mikhail") or the likes, they were likely born in the 1980s. If they have a name one cannot really place, they might've been born in the 1990s or later. These days it is not uncommon to give a "weird" first name and a "normal" middle name, such as "Beyton Francisco" or "Mayela Luisa". Younger couples also take to PortmanteauCoupleName for their kid, creating a new name by smoshing together the name of the parents. American names, or in some cases [[EaglelandOsmosis what Nicaraguans think are American names]] have also become popular since the end of the Contra War, giving rise to such bizarre concoctions as "Ruswel" (a phonetic spelling of a mispronunciation of [[UsefulNotes/ThePresidentsOfTheUnitedStates Teddy or FDR]]). "Bismarck" is another not unheard of first name, as is Daisy.

!!!Apellidos
Nicaragua has for a long time been some form of HereditaryRepublic and as such "last names" carried a lot of weight. The unquestionably most important family on the national level were, for most of the 19th century and the early 20th century, the Chamorros, who had several of their number rise to the presidency or take high positions in business or journalism. The Somozas were initially the equivalent of minor nobility, but managed to eke out a family dictatorship from the 1930s to the aforementioned 1979 revolution. However, their family name is -- for understandable reasons -- mud. Nicaragua also had a small but significant German descendant minority, who primarily settled in the North of the country and got active in the coffee business. If somebody has a German sounding last name, they may be connected to that heritage. Somoza "fought" in World War 2 by expropriating many German-Nicaraguans for alleged or real Nazi sympathies.

!!!Nicknames
Nicaraguans love getting nicknames, but due to the rather uncommon first names (and hence difficulty to use "standard" nicknames) and the often sprawling and tightly knit families making last name-based nicknames impractical, nicknames are often based on outwards appearance. They may be rather direct (ex-president Arnoldo Aleman is known as "El Gordo" due to his rotundness) and sometimes {{ironic|Nickname}}, calling somebody exactly the thing they ''aren't''. A common word that even casual white skinned visitors to Nicaragua are bound to hear is "chele", apparently derived from "leche" (milk) with the syllables turned around, which is used for light skinned people, particularly light skinned foreigners or, in some cases, dark skinned people in irony.
%%
%%!!Central America

!Central America

!!UsefulNotes/{{Nicaragua}}
In general, there are two factors that majorly affect Nicaraguan naming schemes: the ethnic diversity of the country, and politics. While the political elite is largely mestizo, there are to this day notable indigenous and Afro-descended groups that speak indigenous languages and creole English, mostly in the Eastern half of the country. While many families gave their kids conservative, biblical names akin to Francoist Spain until the Sandinista Revolution of 1979, since then Russian derived "communist" names -- and in more recent times, "American" names -- have become popular. However, it is often that not all Nicaraguans fully understand the cultural origin of the name and as such last names may be used as first names, [[SpellMyNameWithAnS uncommon spellings]] and mispronunciations abound.

!!!Nombres
It is often easy to at least somewhat pinpoint when somebody was born and which political leanings their parents had at the time. If they have a "pedestrian" Spanish name like José, Juan, Luis or the likes, they were likely born before the 1979 revolution. If they have a name like "Lenin", "Mijail" (varying spelllings, sometimes also "Mikhail") or the likes, they were likely born in the 1980s. If they have a name one cannot really place, they might've been born in the 1990s or later. These days it is not uncommon to give a "weird" first name and a "normal" middle name, such as "Beyton Francisco" or "Mayela Luisa". Younger couples also take to PortmanteauCoupleName for their kid, creating a new name by smoshing together the name of the parents. American names, or in some cases [[EaglelandOsmosis what Nicaraguans think are American names]] have also become popular since the end of the Contra War, giving rise to such bizarre concoctions as "Ruswel" (a phonetic spelling of a mispronunciation of [[UsefulNotes/ThePresidentsOfTheUnitedStates Teddy or FDR]]). "Bismarck" is another not unheard of first name, as is Daisy.

Nicaragua has for a long time been some form of HereditaryRepublic and as such "last names" carried a lot of weight. The unquestionably most important family on the national level were, for most of the 19th century and the early 20th century, the Chamorros, who had several of their number rise to the presidency or take high positions in business or journalism. The Somozas were initially the equivalent of minor nobility, but managed to eke out a family dictatorship from the 1930s to the aforementioned 1979 revolution. However, their family name is -- for understandable reasons -- mud. Nicaragua also had a small but significant German descendant minority, who primarily settled in the North of the country and got active in the coffee business. If somebody has a German sounding last name, they may be connected to that heritage. Somoza "fought" in World War 2 by expropriating many German-Nicaraguans for alleged or real Nazi sympathies.

!!!Nicknames
Nicaraguans love getting nicknames, but due to the rather uncommon first names (and hence difficulty to use "standard" nicknames) and the often sprawling and tightly knit families making last name-based nicknames impractical, nicknames are often based on outwards appearance. They may be rather direct (ex-president Arnoldo Aleman is known as "El Gordo" due to his rotundness) and sometimes {{ironic|Nickname}}, calling somebody exactly the thing they ''aren't''. A common word that even casual white skinned visitors to Nicaragua are bound to hear is "chele", apparently derived from "leche" (milk) with the syllables turned around, which is used for light skinned people, particularly light skinned foreigners or, in some cases, dark skinned people in irony.

%%!!Central America

!Caribbean

!!UsefulNotes/{{Cuba}}

!!!Apellidos
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/apellidos_cuba.png]]
Cuba is one of the countries that more commonly includes longer surnames in two ways: it retains a lot of the long singular names from colonial periods when many other Latin American countries have not, and it is one of the countries (along with much of Central America) that commonly includes grandparent/ancestral/lineage surnames in addition to father's and mother's.

Honestly, who let Cuba come up with their own rules? This gets messy. The short version is that the nation's tradition seems to be rooted in misogyny, as in practical usage most men go by an inherited family name and women go by either their father's name, their husband's name, or both. Ironically, actual full surnames are very hefty and can be strangely ordered. The base of taking surnames is the typical Latin American pattern of your father's, your mother's, your paternal grandmother's, your maternal grandmother's (which can be rephrased many ways because lots of your relatives will have all these names in various different orders), but something funny happens when it comes to marriage, at least traditionally and commonly persisting in several (even modern American) communities. The woman's first surname -- the one from her father and his father, etc. -- gets bumped to the end of her inherited names. This actually makes quite a lot of sense, at least in terms of women being viewed as property. The last 'name' to be seen, typically the easiest part to remember, will be [father's name] de [husband's name], which is in short saying that she belongs to these two men. At this point, the rest of the surname may be discounted or just fairly simple to use with the woman's given names, the ending now most important.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/apellidos_odaat3.png]]
Take the example of the remake of ''Series/{{One Day at a Time|2017}}'', about a Cuban-American family, and [[ShownTheirWork with a Cuban-American showrunner]]. Lydia is the mother of Penelope, who is the mother of Elena. We have Lydia's full name, Lydia Margarita Del Carmen Inclan Maribona Leytevidal de Riera, and Elena's full name, Elena Maria Alvarez Riera Calderón Leytevidal Inclan. In parts: [Inclan] [Maribona] [Leytevidal] de [Riera] and [Alvarez] [Riera] [Calderón] [Leytevidal] [Inclan]. Because Lydia has been married, her father's name is Leytevidal, which makes it Penelope's mother's (i.e. Lydia) name, so Penelope's name (since she has also been married) will start [Leytevidal]. From Elena's name, Alvarez is her father, Penelope's husband, so Penelope's name will end with de [Alvarez]; Lydia's husband's name is Riera, and this is also Elena's mother's name, so it is Penelope's father's name and will come before as [Riera] de [Alvarez]. From Elena's name, Calderón comes from her paternal grandmother, her father's side, and so won't appear in Penelope's name. Similarly, in Lydia's name, Maribona is her grandmother's surname and theoretically too far removed for Penelope to inherit it, though this isn't unheard of (and it is evident that Elena was given such a name, likely connecting with the matriarchy displayed in the show). Inclan is Penelope's grandmother's name, so it will appear 'last' in her name, as [Inclan] [Riera] de [Alvarez]. Unfortunately, we don't know Penelope's father's full name to work out what would come before Inclan, leaving her unmarried name as [Riera] [Leytevidal] [?] [Inclan], and her married name as [Leytevidal] [?] [Inclan] [Riera] de [Alvarez]. A fun (actually, difficult and taxing) exercise is to apply this to work out other peoples' names from their relatives; it also helps prove the point that 1. it works, 2. it's hard, 3. why, Cuba, why?!
%%

Spanish is one of the most commonly spoken languages in the world (second to only Mandarin Chinese in the number of first-language speakers and only to English and Mandarin Chinese in the number of total speakers). Moreover, the Hispanosphere has a long history of interaction ([[UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars the good]], [[UsefulNotes/AngloSpanishWar15851604 the]] [[UsefulNotes/MexicanAmericanWar bad]], [[UsefulNotes/SpanishAmericanWarsOfIndependence the mixed]], and [[UsefulNotes/TheMexicanRevolution the ambiguous]]) and still have frequent cultural and economic exchanges. It's thus no surprise that Latin/Hispanic cultures are among the most common non-Anglo cultures represented in English-language media. (And other European media, probably.) For these reasons, many may falsely assume that various Spanish cultures and traditions are similar or identical to Anglo-American ones, with only more [[TheCartel drugs]], [[{{Bandito}} crime]], and [[DashingHispanic really]] [[SpicyLatina attractive]] [[LatinLover people]]. However, this is not the case. One of the most obvious things to get wrong is the names you give to people being inappropriate for the time/location, misgendered, or just plain incorrect. The one thing many {{comed|y}}ies, especially, often do get right is [[OverlyLongName the length many names can be]], typically for laughs. Unfortunately, a lot of media relies on reusing {{Stock Foreign Name}}s without checking if they're appropriate. Hopefully, this page will help you out more than that.

Spanish is one of the most commonly spoken languages in the world (second to only Mandarin Chinese in the number of first-language speakers and only to English and Mandarin Chinese in the number of total speakers). Moreover, the Hispanosphere has a long history of interaction ([[UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars the good]], [[UsefulNotes/AngloSpanishWar15851604 the]] [[UsefulNotes/MexicanAmericanWar bad]], and [[UsefulNotes/SpanishAmericanWarsOfIndependence the mixed]]) and still have frequent cultural and economic exchanges. It's thus no surprise that Latin/Hispanic cultures are among the most common non-Anglo cultures represented in English-language media. (And other European media, probably.) For these reasons, many may falsely assume that various Spanish cultures and traditions are similar or identical to Anglo-American ones, with only more [[TheCartel drugs]], [[{{Bandito}} crime]], and [[DashingHispanic really]] [[SpicyLatina attractive]] [[LatinLover people]]. However, this is not the case. One of the most obvious things to get wrong is the names you give to people being inappropriate for the time/location, misgendered, or just plain incorrect. The one thing many {{comed|y}}ies, especially, often do get right is [[OverlyLongName the length many names can be]], typically for laughs. Unfortunately, a lot of media relies on reusing {{Stock Foreign Name}}s without checking if they're appropriate. Hopefully, this page will help you out more than that.

Spanish is one of the most commonly spoken languages in the world (second to only Mandarin Chinese in the number of first-language speakers and only to English and Mandarin Chinese in the number of total speakers). Moreover, the Hispanosphere has a long history of interaction ([[UsefulNotes/NapoleonicWars the good]], [[UsefulNotes/TheSpanishArmada the]] [[UsefulNotes/MexicanAmericanWar bad]], and [[UsefulNotes/SpanishAmericanWarsOfIndependence the mixed]]) and still have frequent cultural and economic exchanges. It's thus no surprise that Latin/Hispanic cultures are among the most common non-Anglo cultures represented in English-language media. (And other European media, probably.) For these reasons, many may falsely assume that various Spanish cultures and traditions are similar or identical to Anglo-American ones, with only more [[TheCartel drugs]], [[{{Bandito}} crime]], and [[DashingHispanic really]] [[SpicyLatina attractive]] [[LatinLover people]]. However, this is not the case. One of the most obvious things to get wrong is the names you give to people being inappropriate for the time/location, misgendered, or just plain incorrect. The one thing many {{comed|y}}ies, especially, often do get right is [[OverlyLongName the length many names can be]], typically for laughs. Unfortunately, a lot of media relies on reusing {{Stock Foreign Name}}s without checking if they're appropriate. Hopefully, this page will help you out more than that.

Spanish is one of the most commonly spoken languages in the world, and Latin/Hispanic cultures are among the most common non-Anglo cultures represented in media. For these reasons, many may falsely assume that various Spanish cultures and traditions are similar or identical to Anglo-American ones, with only more [[TheCartel drugs]], [[{{Bandito}} crime]], and [[DashingHispanic really]] [[SpicyLatina attractive]] [[LatinLover people]]. However, this is not the case. One of the most obvious things to get wrong is the names you give to people being inappropriate for the time/location, misgendered, or just plain incorrect. The one thing many {{comed|y}}ies, especially, often do get right is [[OverlyLongName the length many names can be]], typically for laughs. Unfortunately, a lot of media relies on reusing {{Stock Foreign Name}}s without checking if they're appropriate. Hopefully, this page will help you out more than that.

** Alejandro Villanueva, Spanish–American offensive tackle for the [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague Baltimore Ravens]] and former [[UsefulNotes/YanksWithTanks US Army Ranger]][[note]]An international MilitaryBrat; his father was a Spanish Navy officer attached to NATO, with Alejandro being born in Mississippi[[/note]]

* Antonio -- translates as Anthony, theoretically means 'son of Hercules' (as in the literal son of the literal demigod), but this was claimed by Mark Anthony, and probably isn't true. The literal meaning is 'flower', so one can see why he'd make it up -- didn't stop people from believing and repeating it for centuries, though

* Rafael -- commonly Anglicized as Raphael, means 'God has healed'

!Caribbean

!!UsefulNotes/{{Cuba}}

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/apellidos_cuba.png]]
Cuba is one of the countries that more commonly includes longer surnames in two ways: it retains a lot of the long singular names from colonial periods when many other Latin American countries have not, and it is one of the countries (along with much of Central America) that commonly includes grandparent/ancestral/lineage surnames in addition to father's and mother's.

Honestly, who let Cuba come up with their own rules? This gets messy. The short version is that the nation's tradition seems to be rooted in misogyny, as in practical usage most men go by an inherited family name and women go by either their father's name, their husband's name, or both. Ironically, actual full surnames are very hefty and can be strangely ordered. The base of taking surnames is the typical Latin American pattern of your father's, your mother's, your paternal grandmother's, your maternal grandmother's (which can be rephrased many ways because lots of your relatives will have all these names in various different orders), but something funny happens when it comes to marriage, at least traditionally and commonly persisting in several (even modern American) communities. The woman's first surname -- the one from her father and his father, etc. -- gets bumped to the end of her inherited names. This actually makes quite a lot of sense, at least in terms of women being viewed as property. The last 'name' to be seen, typically the easiest part to remember, will be [father's name] de [husband's name], which is in short saying that she belongs to these two men. At this point, the rest of the surname may be discounted or just fairly simple to use with the woman's given names, the ending now most important.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/apellidos_odaat3.png]]
Take the example of the remake of ''Series/{{One Day at a Time|2017}}'', about a Cuban-American family, and [[ShownTheirWork with a Cuban-American showrunner]]. Lydia is the mother of Penelope, who is the mother of Elena. We have Lydia's full name, Lydia Margarita Del Carmen Inclan Maribona Leytevidal de Riera, and Elena's full name, Elena Maria Alvarez Riera Calderón Leytevidal Inclan. In parts: [Inclan] [Maribona] [Leytevidal] de [Riera] and [Alvarez] [Riera] [Calderón] [Leytevidal] [Inclan]. Because Lydia has been married, her father's name is Leytevidal, which makes it Penelope's mother's (i.e. Lydia) name, so Penelope's name (since she has also been married) will start [Leytevidal]. From Elena's name, Alvarez is her father, Penelope's husband, so Penelope's name will end with de [Alvarez]; Lydia's husband's name is Riera, and this is also Elena's mother's name, so it is Penelope's father's name and will come before as [Riera] de [Alvarez]. From Elena's name, Calderón comes from her paternal grandmother, her father's side, and so won't appear in Penelope's name. Similarly, in Lydia's name, Maribona is her grandmother's surname and theoretically too far removed for Penelope to inherit it, though this isn't unheard of (and it is evident that Elena was given such a name, likely connecting with the matriarchy displayed in the show). Inclan is Penelope's grandmother's name, so it will appear 'last' in her name, as [Inclan] [Riera] de [Alvarez]. Unfortunately, we don't know Penelope's father's full name to work out what would come before Inclan, leaving her unmarried name as [Riera] [Leytevidal] [?] [Inclan], and her married name as [Leytevidal] [?] [Inclan] [Riera] de [Alvarez]. A fun (actually, difficult and taxing) exercise is to apply this to work out other peoples' names from their relatives; it also helps prove the point that 1. it works, 2. it's hard, 3. why, Cuba, why?!

!Central America

!!UsefulNotes/{{Nicaragua}}
In general, there are two factors that majorly affect Nicaraguan naming schemes: the ethnic diversity of the country, and politics. While the political elite is largely mestizo, there are to this day notable indigenous and Afro-descended groups that speak indigenous languages and creole English, mostly in the Eastern half of the country. While many families gave their kids conservative, biblical names akin to Francoist Spain until the Sandinista Revolution of 1979, since then Russian derived "communist" names -- and in more recent times, "American" names -- have become popular. However, it is often that not all Nicaraguans fully understand the cultural origin of the name and as such last names may be used as first names, [[SpellMyNameWithAnS uncommon spellings]] and mispronunciations abound.

!!!Nombres
It is often easy to at least somewhat pinpoint when somebody was born and which political leanings their parents had at the time. If they have a "pedestrian" Spanish name like José, Juan, Luis or the likes, they were likely born before the 1979 revolution. If they have a name like "Lenin", "Mijail" (varying spelllings, sometimes also "Mikhail") or the likes, they were likely born in the 1980s. If they have a name one cannot really place, they might've been born in the 1990s or later. These days it is not uncommon to give a "weird" first name and a "normal" middle name, such as "Beyton Francisco" or "Mayela Luisa". Younger couples also take to PortmanteauCoupleName for their kid, creating a new name by smoshing together the name of the parents. American names, or in some cases [[EaglelandOsmosis what Nicaraguans think are American names]] have also become popular since the end of the Contra War, giving rise to such bizarre concoctions as "Ruswel" (a phonetic spelling of a mispronunciation of [[UsefulNotes/ThePresidentsOfTheUnitedStates Teddy or FDR]]). "Bismarck" is another not unheard of first name, as is Daisy.

!!!Apellidos
Nicaragua has for a long time been some form of HereditaryRepublic and as such "last names" carried a lot of weight. The unquestionably most important family on the national level were, for most of the 19th century and the early 20th century, the Chamorros, who had several of their number rise to the presidency or take high positions in business or journalism. The Somozas were initially the equivalent of minor nobility, but managed to eke out a family dictatorship from the 1930s to the aforementioned 1979 revolution. However, their family name is -- for understandable reasons -- mud. Nicaragua also had a small but significant German descendant minority, who primarily settled in the North of the country and got active in the coffee business. If somebody has a German sounding last name, they may be connected to that heritage. Somoza "fought" in World War 2 by expropriating many German-Nicaraguans for alleged or real Nazi sympathies.

!!!Nicknames
Nicaraguans love getting nicknames, but due to the rather uncommon first names (and hence difficulty to use "standard" nicknames) and the often sprawling and tightly knit families making last name-based nicknames impractical, nicknames are often based on outwards appearance. They may be rather direct (ex-president Arnoldo Aleman is known as "El Gordo" due to his rotundness) and sometimes {{ironic|Nickname}}, calling somebody exactly the thing they ''aren't''. A common word that even casual white skinned visitors to Nicaragua are bound to hear is "chele", apparently derived from "leche" (milk) with the syllables turned around, which is used for light skinned people, particularly light skinned foreigners or, in some cases, dark skinned people in irony.
%%
%%!!Central America

** Pedro Martínez, Dominican [[UsefulNotes/HistoricalPeopleToKnowInMLB Hall of Fame]] pitcher for several [[UsefulNotes/{{Baseball}} Major League Baseball]] teams

!Central America

!!UsefulNotes/{{Nicaragua}}
In general, there are two factors that majorly affect Nicaraguan naming schemes: the ethnic diversity of the country, and politics. While the political elite is largely mestizo, there are to this day notable indigenous and Afro-descended groups that speak indigenous languages and creole English, mostly in the Eastern half of the country. While many families gave their kids conservative, biblical names akin to Francoist Spain until the Sandinista Revolution of 1979, since then Russian derived "communist" names -- and in more recent times, "American" names -- have become popular. However, it is often that not all Nicaraguans fully understand the cultural origin of the name and as such last names may be used as first names, [[SpellMyNameWithAnS uncommon spellings]] and mispronunciations abound.

!!!Nombres
It is often easy to at least somewhat pinpoint when somebody was born and which political leanings their parents had at the time. If they have a "pedestrian" Spanish name like José, Juan, Luis or the likes, they were likely born before the 1979 revolution. If they have a name like "Lenin", "Mijail" (varying spelllings, sometimes also "Mikhail") or the likes, they were likely born in the 1980s. If they have a name one cannot really place, they might've been born in the 1990s or later. These days it is not uncommon to give a "weird" first name and a "normal" middle name, such as "Beyton Francisco" or "Mayela Luisa". Younger couples also take to PortmanteauCoupleName for their kid, creating a new name by smoshing together the name of the parents. American names, or in some cases [[EaglelandOsmosis what Nicaraguans think are American names]] have also become popular since the end of the Contra War, giving rise to such bizarre concoctions as "Ruswel" (a phonetic spelling of a mispronunciation of [[UsefulNotes/ThePresidentsOfTheUnitedStates Teddy or FDR]]). "Bismarck" is another not unheard of first name, as is Daisy.

Nicaragua has for a long time been some form of HereditaryRepublic and as such "last names" carried a lot of weight. The unquestionably most important family on the national level were, for most of the 19th century and the early 20th century, the Chamorros, who had several of their number rise to the presidency or take high positions in business or journalism. The Somozas were initially the equivalent of minor nobility, but managed to eke out a family dictatorship from the 1930s to the aforementioned 1979 revolution. However, their family name is -- for understandable reasons -- mud. Nicaragua also had a small but significant German descendant minority, who primarily settled in the North of the country and got active in the coffee business. If somebody has a German sounding last name, they may be connected to that heritage. Somoza "fought" in World War 2 by expropriating many German-Nicaraguans for alleged or real Nazi sympathies.

!!!Nicknames
Nicaraguans love getting nicknames, but due to the rather uncommon first names (and hence difficulty to use "standard" nicknames) and the often sprawling and tightly knit families making last name-based nicknames impractical, nicknames are often based on outwards appearance. They may be rather direct (ex-president Arnoldo Aleman is known as "El Gordo" due to his rotundness) and sometimes {{ironic|Nickname}}, calling somebody exactly the thing they ''aren't''. A common word that even casual white skinned visitors to Nicaragua are bound to hear is "chele", apparently derived from "leche" (milk) with the syllables turned around, which is used for light skinned people, particularly light skinned foreigners or, in some cases, dark skinned people in irony.

%%!!Central America

!Caribbean

!!UsefulNotes/{{Cuba}}

!!!Apellidos
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/apellidos_cuba.png]]
Cuba is one of the countries that more commonly includes longer surnames in two ways: it retains a lot of the long singular names from colonial periods when many other Latin American countries have not, and it is one of the countries (along with much of Central America) that commonly includes grandparent/ancestral/lineage surnames in addition to father's and mother's.

Honestly, who let Cuba come up with their own rules? This gets messy. The short version is that the nation's tradition seems to be rooted in misogyny, as in practical usage most men go by an inherited family name and women go by either their father's name, their husband's name, or both. Ironically, actual full surnames are very hefty and can be strangely ordered. The base of taking surnames is the typical Latin American pattern of your father's, your mother's, your paternal grandmother's, your maternal grandmother's (which can be rephrased many ways because lots of your relatives will have all these names in various different orders), but something funny happens when it comes to marriage, at least traditionally and commonly persisting in several (even modern American) communities. The woman's first surname -- the one from her father and his father, etc. -- gets bumped to the end of her inherited names. This actually makes quite a lot of sense, at least in terms of women being viewed as property. The last 'name' to be seen, typically the easiest part to remember, will be [father's name] de [husband's name], which is in short saying that she belongs to these two men. At this point, the rest of the surname may be discounted or just fairly simple to use with the woman's given names, the ending now most important.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/apellidos_odaat3.png]]
Take the example of the remake of ''Series/{{One Day at a Time|2017}}'', about a Cuban-American family, and [[ShownTheirWork with a Cuban-American showrunner]]. Lydia is the mother of Penelope, who is the mother of Elena. We have Lydia's full name, Lydia Margarita Del Carmen Inclan Maribona Leytevidal de Riera, and Elena's full name, Elena Maria Alvarez Riera Calderón Leytevidal Inclan. In parts: [Inclan] [Maribona] [Leytevidal] de [Riera] and [Alvarez] [Riera] [Calderón] [Leytevidal] [Inclan]. Because Lydia has been married, her father's name is Leytevidal, which makes it Penelope's mother's (i.e. Lydia) name, so Penelope's name (since she has also been married) will start [Leytevidal]. From Elena's name, Alvarez is her father, Penelope's husband, so Penelope's name will end with de [Alvarez]; Lydia's husband's name is Riera, and this is also Elena's mother's name, so it is Penelope's father's name and will come before as [Riera] de [Alvarez]. From Elena's name, Calderón comes from her paternal grandmother, her father's side, and so won't appear in Penelope's name. Similarly, in Lydia's name, Maribona is her grandmother's surname and theoretically too far removed for Penelope to inherit it, though this isn't unheard of (and it is evident that Elena was given such a name, likely connecting with the matriarchy displayed in the show). Inclan is Penelope's grandmother's name, so it will appear 'last' in her name, as [Inclan] [Riera] de [Alvarez]. Unfortunately, we don't know Penelope's father's full name to work out what would come before Inclan, leaving her unmarried name as [Riera] [Leytevidal] [?] [Inclan], and her married name as [Leytevidal] [?] [Inclan] [Riera] de [Alvarez]. A fun (actually, difficult and taxing) exercise is to apply this to work out other peoples' names from their relatives; it also helps prove the point that 1. it works, 2. it's hard, 3. why, Cuba, why?!
%%

Something unique to Colombia is the large presence of Middle Eastern names, especially in the Atlántico area. In the 20th century, a lot of people from the Middle East immigrated to Latin America, and a lot of these arrived in Barranquilla because it was a reasonably large but also very easy to access port city from the Atlantic, as well as being on a Northern coast and so convenient for gulf streams. Many of the most popular surnames in Atlántico are Middle Eastern, and there's also a Catalan presence because they, similarly, decided to up and leave an oppressive country for one that was realistically not much better until 2016. This can be seen in, for example, Music/{{Shakira}} -- the singer is from Barranquilla, with the full name she most often gives out being Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll: Mebarak is Lebanese and Ripoll is Catalan. They're also two of the most common surnames in Barranquilla. If you're wondering, yes, Shakira does actually have more surnames, and at least in her pre-"Music/HipsDontLie" career she did give at least four in interviews.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/apellidos_colombia.png]]
Colombia sticks with the most common Latin American practice of having surnames from parents and grandparents. This may seem confusing, but it's basically the same pattern as only having father and mother, but twice: you get father's and then mother's paternal surname, and then father's and then mother's maternal surname. Of course, your parents likely have four names, too, and you only take two from each. If you don't want to truly work out why, you can visualize it as having father's 1 - mother's 1 - father's 2 - mother's 2. Regarding marriage, it is typically personal choice whether to take a married name or not. Recently, also, some men also take an honorific from their wife when they get married. Of course, this doesn't really matter when it comes to giving children names, so why not.

More unique to Colombia is the large presence of Middle Eastern names, especially in the Atlántico area. In the 20th century, a lot of people from the Middle East immigrated to Latin America, and a lot of these arrived in Barranquilla because it was a reasonably large but also very easy to access port city from the Atlantic, as well as being on a Northern coast and so convenient for gulf streams. Many of the most popular surnames in Atlántico are Middle Eastern, and there's also a Catalan presence because they, similarly, decided to up and leave an oppressive country for one that was realistically not much better until 2016. This can be seen in, for example, Music/{{Shakira}} -- the singer is from Barranquilla, with the full name she most often gives out being Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll: Mebarak is Lebanese and Ripoll is Catalan. They're also two of the most common surnames in Barranquilla. If you're wondering, yes, Shakira does actually have more surnames, and at least in her pre-"Music/HipsDontLie" career she did give at least four in interviews.

That's also particular: at least four, because the F1 - M1 - F2 - M2 is the standard, but it's easily possible that if you like a particular relative, or someone's been married multiple times [[ChristianityIsCatholic and you haven't disowned them]], or for a variety of other reasons, you can have more.

It is often easy to at least somewhat pinpoint when somebody was born and which political leanings their parents had at the time. If they have a "pedestrian" Spanish name like José, Juan, Luis or the likes, they were likely born before the 1979 revolution. If they have a name like "Lenin", "Mijail" (varying spelllings, sometimes also "Mikhail") or the likes, they were likely born in the 1980s. If they have a name one cannot really place, they might've been born in the 1990s or later. These days it is not uncommon to give a "weird" first name and a "normal" middle name, such as "Beyton Francisco" or "Mayela Luisa". Younger couples also take to PortmanteauCoupleName for their kid, creating a new name by smoshing together the name of the parents. American names, or in some cases [[EaglelandOsmosis what Nicaraguans think are American names]] have also become popular since the end of the Contra War, giving rise to such bizarre concoctions as "Ruswel" (a phonetic spelling of a mispronunciation of [[UsefulNotes/ThePresidents Teddy or FDR]]). "Bismarck" is another not unheard of first name, as is Daisy.

* Daniel -- a religious name (Literature/BookOfDaniel), meaning 'God is my judge'. Pronounced as 'dan-ee-el' or 'dan-yell'.

* David -- again religious, from the King of Israel, means figuratively 'to be beloved'. Pronounced 'da-beed'. According to Spain's Statistics Department, this was THE most popular name for boys in the 70s, 80s and 90s, meaning that a lot of Spaniard Gen Xers and Millenials have this name.

* David -- again religious, from the King of Israel, means figuratively 'to love'. Pronounced 'da-beed'.

Some names come with predetermined nicknames, or diminutive forms of the name. It can be kind of hard to understand this concept, but imagine it being like every Thomas being called Tom, but more -- and just be thankful it's [[UsefulNotes/RussianNamingConvention not Russian]].

** Marc Gasol, Barcelona-born basketball player for the Toronto Raptors and younger brother of Pau Gasol (below)

** Pau Gasol, Barcelona-born basketball player for the Milwaukee Bucks

** Pau Casals i Defilló (more often known in the Anglosphere by the Castillian equivalent, Pablo Casals), virtuoso cellist and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom

* Anxo -- the Gallego and Langudocien version of Ángel. It is also an alternative name for a Basque mythological creature, either the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tartalo Tartaro]] or the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basajaun Basajaun]]. The Basque history suggests Anxo comes from the nickname Sancho.

In general, there are two factors that majorly affect Nicaraguan naming schemes: the ethnic diversity of the country, and politics. While the political elite is largely mestizo, there are to this day notable indigenous and Afro-descended groups that speak indigenous languages and creole English, mostly in the Eastern half of the country. While many families gave their kids conservative, biblical names akin to Francoist Spain until the Sandinista Revolution of 1979, since then Russian derived "communist" names -- and in more recent times, "American" names -- have become popular. However, it is often that not all Nicaraguans fully understand the cultural origin of the name and as such last names may be used as first names, [[SpellMyNameWithAnS uncommon spellings]] and [[ItIsPronouncedTropay mispronunciations]] abound.

** Many more Spanish kings, coincidentally how they named the UsefulNotes/Philippines, including the current one, King Felipe VI