These second names are only used in formal occasions, and in many cases only registered in the birth, marriage and death certificates.
Generally speaking, Argentine family names usually consist of a single, paternal surname.
Although a woman may socially use the marital conjunction de –a very rare practice nowadays, considered to be antiquated by many or even derogative- it is omitted in her legal name.
Parents of the same sex may choose the order of both surnames of the children (either by birth or adoption) by mutual agreement.
[9] In Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Puerto Rico, both men and women carry their two family names (first their father's, and second their mother's).
Even when they migrate to other countries where this is a common practice, many prefer to adhere to their heritage and keep their maiden name.
Most choose the traditional order (e.g., Guerrero García in the example above), but some invert the order, putting the mother's paternal surname first and the father's paternal surname last (e.g., García Guerrero from the example above).
15.462, it is forbidden to the Officers of Public Registrars to register "names that are extravagant, ridiculous, immoral or that may provoke a misunderstanding regarding the sex of the child on whom it is being imposed.".
Same-sex parents may choose the order of both surnames of the children (either from birth or adoption) by mutual agreement.
In August 2007, a draft law[13] by the Venezuelan National Electoral Council thus sought to change the national Venezuelan naming customs: 'Civil Registry Organic Law Project: Limitation upon the inscription of names Article 106 "...[civil registrars] will not permit... [parents] to place names [upon their children] that expose them to ridicule; that are extravagant or difficult to pronounce in the official language; that contain familiar and colloquial variants that denote a confused identification, or that generate doubts about the determination of the sex.
The names of boys, girls, or adolescents of the country's indigenous ethnic groups and the names of foreigners' children are excepted from this disposition...." Popular complaint against the naming-custom-limiting Article 106 compelled the Venezuelan National Electoral Council to delete it from the Civil Registry Organic Law Project.
[14] It could be said that common names like Elvio Lado (which can be pronounced as "el violado", meaning "the raped one") or Mónica Galindo (which can be pronounced as "Moni caga lindo", meaning "Moni shits prettily") would count as an example of violation to this law.
Her full formal married-name (Ángela López Sáenz de Portillo) is the documentary convention in only some Latin American countries.
Where it exists, the custom provides her with ceremonial life and death wife-names, Ángela López, Sra.
The Hispanic practice of omitting the second surname from the mother occasionally[citation needed] results in legal mistakes by entities in the United States, where, by social convention, there is a single last name inherited solely from the father.
For example, the 2006 decision on Corona Fruits & Veggies v. Frozsun Foods, from one of the California Courts of Appeal, held that a creditor had failed to perfect its security interest in the strawberry crop of a debtor whose full true name was "Armando Muñoz Juárez".
[15] The court ruled: "Debtor's last name did not change when he crossed the border into the United States.
]"[15] In other words, under the California implementation of the Uniform Commercial Code, the debtor's "true last name" was Juárez (his maternal surname).