kumast

Hello to all

My partner and I would welcome any help you can give us. I´m British, she is Spanish and we live in Barcelona.

Our daughter was born here recently. She needs to be registered here because her mother is Spanish.

We went to register her yesterday and we were told that we can´t give her our chosen name. There´s no problem with the first name, but we also want to give her two middle names: my mother´s first name and the first name of my partner, and there´s a problem with this.

The woman at the office said we can only give her one first name and thats it! The reason seemed to be because it´s not common to give middle names in Spain. But that doesn´t seem like an adequate reason to us. One of her parents comes from a country where middle names are common, and anyway surely we can call our child whatever we want to can´t we? (within reason obviously).

Does anyone have experience of this? Did anyone get around it and if so how?

thanks in advance

Rosemary

As Concierge for the Spanish section of BE I would like to say hello and welcome.

BE is a very large expat website, so if you have problems finding your way around we have concierges who will try to direct you. The moderators for the Spanish forums are Mitzyboy and Fred James, moderators are there to ensure that the site runs smoothly within the rules of BE. Problems and complaints should always be addressed to a moderador who will look into the matter and deal with it efficiently and fairly. Our members who post in the Spain Forums are friendly and helpful with a wealth of knowledge of the issues of living in Spain. At the top of the page you will find a quirkily named thread called Free Beer which is full of important and useful information. Hope you enjoy your time participating in the forums.

Please let me know if you need any further help.

Rosemary

Rosemary

This seems very strange to me because all of my friends have at least two christian names and I can think of one who has five.

Maybe things have changed since they were born though.

Rosemary

rachelk

I don't know the rules, but can you get round it by hyphenating the names?

I can imagine that the likes of JoseMiguel and MariaAngeles might be counted as one, but if you're really only allowed one how do all the Francisco Javiers get round it?

Sorry I can't help but I'd be interested to hear any answers.

kumast

Thanks for your help Rosemary. Yes, maybe things have changed or perhaps the woman at the office was applying the letter and ignoring the spirit of the law. She said that hyphenated first names would be allowed - eg: juan-Jose - but of course we explained that wouldn´t do in our case.

When you say that your friends children have two first names what do you mean exactly? Do you mean a first name and a second, or middle, name?

kumast

Thanks Rachelk.

The woman did say that hyphenated first name - eg: Juan-Jose - were allowed which obviously doesn´t help us. After some gentle pushing from us, she did suggest that she could put one second name as if it were a hyphenated name, but with the hyphen removed. Crazy right? Also it still wouldn´t solve the problem because we would have had to choose which grandmothers name could / could not be included.

kumast

I just realised that maybe I´m wrong to talk of hyphenated names but should perhaps be referring to them as compound names?

rachelk

The more I think about it the odder it sounds. I know perhaps it's subtleties of language, but to say you can't because it's not common doesn't make sense. If you can't, it's not just uncommon, it's impossible.

It may well be true, but it might also be just that it's so uncommon she hasn't come across it before and doesn't know how to register it.

BritInParis

It's uncommon in Spain but I've seen plenty of Spanish birth certificates with two forenames.

kumast

Yes rachelk - I got the impression that the reason the woman wouldn´t allow it was that there was no space for it on the system!

BritInParis . two forenames are common here but that´s not what we want. We want second or middle names as they are called in the UK. Middle names are usually just symbolic as they are in our case.

BritInParis

I think you're arguing semantics to be honest. Spanish birth certificates contain a space for your first surname, your second surname and your forenames. Whether you have one, two or three, they all go in the same space. There's no separate section for middle names like a US birth certificate. British birth certificates don't make the distinction either, just your forenames and then your surname in capitals. Whether you use all your forenames in everyday life or just one or two is up to you. Those you don't use would be considered your middle names.

Sally Redux

I thought Spanish women generally had two names at least, eg Maria Pilar.

kumast

That´s an interesting take on it. I haven´t seen a Spanish birth certificate yet (we delayed registering the baby) but the registration form asks for and only has space for one forename / first name. And the woman who served us confirmed this. And maybe you´re right about the UK birth certificate. i haven´t seen one for some time but I presume it´s like the UK passport is it with simply ´forenames´and ´surname´?

However what you say offers me hope. Maybe we can just fit in all three names on the form and not bother to refer to them as middle or second names and maybe it will be allowed to go through.

rachelk

Someone recently posted re where to add your middle name on a different type of form and that was the suggestion - it's what I do when I have to deal with spanish paperwork but I guess it depends on how long the names are and how many boxes there are for the letters.

BritInParis

Just say that (for example) John Michael James is all one forename. It won't make a difference whether John is a forename and Michael James are middle names when it goes on a passport, Spanish or British.

Once you've got the result you want with the Spanish authorities you can register the birth with the British authorities in the style you want to make sure that it's consistent across both jurisdictions.

https://www.gov.uk/register-a-birth

Hint: If you need an English version of the birth certificate, don't pay for an expensive translation of the Spanish birth certificate, just ask the local authority to provide you with an international or plurilingual version. Spain is under international obligation to provide you with one in a standard, recognised format and it'll be either free or close enough.