Spanish naming customs

Spanish naming customs use a given name followed by the paternal name of the father and the paternal name of the mother. Another Spanish custom is that a woman will not change her name to her husband’s name when she marries, thus preserving her lineage. 

When my grandparents left Spain, they did so to become Americans. They blended traditions from Spain with America in that they gave their children Spanish names, but called them by the American equivalent.

This is evident in the way our grandparents identified themselves. As they became more acclimated to the American way of life, they changed from the Spanish tradition of using family names to the American method of keeping only the husbands family name. For instance, when registering for passage from Hawaii to California and the Federal Census’ our grandparents used Ortega as their surname, and eventually grandpa changed from Juan to John.

Therefore, when quoting an historical document that misspelled a name, I have recorded the name as found on the document and tried to place it within single quotation marks, thus helping to preserve the link to the original document and or its index. Additionally, names quoted from birth certificates or birth index, are the legal name, not the name we know people by.

The first five of the

Ortega children

Back row: Manuel, Francisco, Juan

Front row: Antonio, Amor