Spanish Supreme Court to rule on Canarian surname dispute

The Spanish Supreme Court will rule on the case of a Canarian mother who wants her son to bear her own surname first, and that of the father second.

In the case in question, a Tenerife mother who was not married to the father of the child when it was born, wishes to change the order of the surnames on the register. The father has opposed the move, and local courts on Tenerife have upheld his objection.

Spanish naming conventions require that the paternal name comes before the maternal name in official documents. For example, the daughter of Pablo García Hernández and Marta Sastre Marcos will be officially known as María García Sastre. The order can be changed, but this normally requires the agreement of both parents at the time of registration.

Many Spaniards, for example artist Pablo Ruíz Picasso and ex-Prime Minister José Rodriguéz Zapatero, have chosen to be known by their mother’s name, but the official naming conventions mean that maternal names are often lost after two generations. 

Foreign residents often have difficulty with Spanish naming customs – “middle names” are not recognised in Spain (they should be entered as first names), and some foreigners have found themselves reviving their mother’s maiden name in order to fulfil the requirement for two surnames on official forms.

The Supreme Court has admitted the case as a “matter of interest”.