# Spanish surnames and name order

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-surnames-and-name-order/428248>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 29, 2007, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-surnames-and-name-order/428248 "2007-11-29T23:56:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\
**Post date:** [December 1, 2007, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-surnames-and-name-order/428248/21 "2007-12-01T08:52:00Z")

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We tend to have HUGE problems with the double names at work. I work for the state Department of Welfare, and a lot of puertorriqueños and mexicanos live in this area. The database is NOT set up for double names, or very long names. People more or less just enter them as the whim takes them, I sometimes think. I’ve seen people under their first surname, their second surname, their first and second surname with a space, their first and second surname with a hyphen, their second surname first, their first surname as their middle initial (Jose Cruz Torres is listed as Jose C. Torres)…it makes searching for someone with a Spanish name a nightmare sometimes.

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