Does anybody know how people of Spanish ancestry handle an illegitmacy in terms of surnames (where “[father’s surname] y [mother’s surname]” is the usual custom). Do they usually inherit whatever their mother’s surnames were? For that matter, an orphaned Spaniard (one who did not know his/her parents)- any idea how this is handled?
For Russians and others who use patronymics, does the child use his/her maternal grandfather’s name as a patronymic?
I asked about Russian patronymics for illegitimate children in this thread. The response I got was that a Russian child could take the name of their adoptive father, their mother’s name, or just pick one.
BTW, the “y” is not “the usual”. The vast majority of Latinos just use two surnames, no connector. Luis Muñoz Marín; Jorge Mas Canosa; Fidel Castro Ruz; Hugo Chávez Frías; José López Portillo. “y” is used more in Spain among upper crust families.
That said, in modern-day Puerto Rico EVERYONE gets:
“Givennames Fathersurname Mothersurname”, as long as Fathersurname is known. If the mother IS married, the current husband will be presumed the father for registration purposes until you get a court to order otherwise. If unmarried, the father can still sign in and everything’s hunky dory; otherwise, it’s what she fills in, and the registrar will make a note for his record if the putative father was not around to sign it himself. (Legally speaking, there is no such thing as a “bastard” in PR. A child is a child is a child and offspring born in lawful wedlock have the exact same rights, privileges and claim on your support and estate as those resulting from a one-night-stand, and you cannot exclude them in the will.)
If the father’s name is unknown, the child repeats the mother’s 2-name set.
In other jurisdictions, and here in the past, for a long time non-marital offspring would have the mother’s paternal surname, repeated: e.g. Sara García Corona’s son would be Andrés García García, making it sound like he was the offspring of two Garcías.
Mind you, that the various Spanish-speaking jurisdictions do not necessaryly ALL require that for everyday business purposes you use your dual surname, so the kid could be somewhere where he can be just Raúl García for most business…
My experience is that it’s a fairly flexible convention. I know one person who just uses his mother’s surname because he was not acknowledged (“recognised”) by his father. I’m not sure he even knows his father’s identity.
In any case it is not such a stigma: lots of people who are not illegitimate don’t always use the mother’s surname unless their paternal surname is extremely common. Sometimes not even then.
This information is based mainly on my time living in the Dominican Republic as well as several Latin American countries, and Spain.
Don’t names that begin with Fitz- (like Fitzhugh, etc.) also denote illegitimacy somewhere in the family background, or is this just another bum steer?
This is a common legend, but incorrect. Fitz comes from the French word “fils”, meaning “son of”. It has no particular connection with illegitimacy. Both legitimate and bastard offspring would be called “Fitz-whatever”.
The most famous example, however, is FitzRoy, meaning son of the king. This surname is a marker of illegitimacy, since any legitimate offspring would be princes and princessess and have no need of being a “Fitz”.