Well, in Latin
America, hyphenated names are very common, specially surnames. People have a "passion" for combining 2 family names and make up their own surname. Some examples of these are "González-Campo"
"Castro-Conde", "Méndez-Ruiz", "Ruiz-Moreno", Gracía-Salas". These are some, that have been around for at least 4 generations, now.
There are other combined family names that have become a single word, such as "Rocasermeño", being Roca one name and Sermeño another. The bearers fo the name have decided to NOT hyphenate it.
The combination of family names came to be, because it is a tradition that the Spanish speaking, have 2 surnames: First your father's Family names and second, your mother's Family name. i.e.
Juan Herrera marries
Lourdes García and they give birth to Little
Pablo. Then
Pablo's full name will be
Pablo Herrera García(NO hyphen). Perhaps, when
Pablo grows up, he will decide that he wants to be
Pablo Herrera-García Vielman(just an example) to honour his mother's mother, who's maiden name is Vielman. So, When
Pablo Herrera-García Vielman, marries say,
Julia García-Salas Fernández(note the hyphenated case) and they give birth to
Mariana, the child's full name will be
Mariana Herrera-García García-Salas(LOL! this really happens!!)
The thing with meanings in Spanish surnames is that , normally they tend to describe occupation, features or places and all of them have very obvious meanings, like Castillo(castle) or Rubio(blond), Campos(fields) etc. And of course the patronymic, the "ez" ending, such as Rodriguez, Perez, Fernández, etc. So, in Spanish there is no choice, most of the time, I suppose. Someone Named
Fernando Castillo Rubio is simply "
Fernando, Blond, form the castle". Hence, there are very funny combinations that develop out of coincidence, such as
Azucena Flores del Campo, "
Lily, flower of the fields".
And, to give an end to the endless, When women get married, of course, we keep our maiden name and add our husband's name. For husband's.
Jennifer López Marries
Benjamin Affleck, then
Jennifer becomes
Jennifer López de Affleck. "de" meaning "belonging to". But it doesn't work that way in every Hispanic country. Although it is in most of them, there are a few countries which do not operate this way.
OK, I think that's more than what you asked for and enough!!(sorry)
Magia.