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My family came from South America to the US where people use their father's and mother's last names as part of their full name. Sure enough, that's what's on my
by sotojuan 10y ago
My family came from South America to the US where people use their father's and mother's last names as part of their full name. Sure enough, that's what's on my green card, social security card, and driver's license. But since in real life we only use one last name, all of my non-government but still important stuff (college, work, etc.) only has one last name. And in real life only my family knows I even have another last name.
I've had countless problems with this and delays in getting stuff transmitted or done because people won't believe it's me or won't understand why I have a second last name (which I or my family never asked for when moving here). If just one extra word causes problems, I can't imagine what other cultures have to deal with! No wonder European immigrants a hundred years ago Americanized their names when moving here :-)
- silencio 10y agoI tried to get two last names through marriage but California wasn't having any of it ...so my partner and I decided to shift names over and functionally have the same result. I probably saved myself your trouble - and I had a Spanish roommate in the past that had mail addressed to him with his two last names in 10+ different combinations - but that so many people have yet to tackle their misconceptions about names is frustrating :( I do have two wonderful? related problems now though: I come across the occasional racist jerk that I can learn to avoid because they can't help Questioning my last name not matching my ethnicity, and I come across people that don't realize that my name in my other language hasn't changed (and that that's just not a Thing that happens in that culture). Yay names.