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Help[Facts] Re: Naming Debate on Surnames
in reply to a message by Elena
You just have to go to Wikipedia find some notable women from different places and periods. On the top of my head, Artemisia Gentileschi and Christine de Pizan, who were both married. It obviously did not happen in Rome, it doesn't happen in Arab world or in Iceland (where people have patronymic surnames, anyway). In any case, in most Western countries surnames are a relatively recent phenomenon.
Certainly in the Iberian peninsula this practice never existed. This probably explains why Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking cultures are probably the only ones in the world where people traditionally carry their mother's surnames in addition to their fathers (and in Portugal until the mid-20th century many women inherited surnames only matrilineally).
Alexandrina, Annabella, Clementine, Charlotte, Emilienne, Florence, Frederica, Katharina, Mary (May), Maud, Penelope, Rosamund, Theodora (Teddy).
Aubrey, Axel, Benedict, Bertrand (Bertie), Cuthbert, Dashiell, Everard, John (Jack) Leopold (Leo), Magnus, Matthias, Maximilian (Max), Wilfred.
Certainly in the Iberian peninsula this practice never existed. This probably explains why Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking cultures are probably the only ones in the world where people traditionally carry their mother's surnames in addition to their fathers (and in Portugal until the mid-20th century many women inherited surnames only matrilineally).
Alexandrina, Annabella, Clementine, Charlotte, Emilienne, Florence, Frederica, Katharina, Mary (May), Maud, Penelope, Rosamund, Theodora (Teddy).
Aubrey, Axel, Benedict, Bertrand (Bertie), Cuthbert, Dashiell, Everard, John (Jack) Leopold (Leo), Magnus, Matthias, Maximilian (Max), Wilfred.
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