Legal Name Change In Argentina

[Crema Americana]

Interesting to see that few use the husband's name at all.

The two last names I understand -- my mother is Spanish so she has her Spanish name (her Spanish last names on her Spanish passport) and in the US she officially goes by her married name (my father's single last name on her US passport.) In Spain the woman never changes her name and isn't referred to as "de ____" either... though sometimes people do use the Mr. and Mrs. Husband's Last Name when referring to the couple... or the plural form of the last name when referring to the family unit.

My husband asked why I never use his last name... but what's the point? It's not legally standing and makes little sense to me to use one name for all official documents and another to make hair salon appointments. His name is uncommon too so I am still stuck having to spell it out. Then there's the possessive nature of it. I wouldn't mind changing my name if that was the custom (like in the US or other parts of Europe), but I see that more as uniformity of a family name and not direct possession.

Yo no soy de nadie.

 

[Girino]

And what's wrong with having a slavic last name in Latin America?

The problem was/is having it in Italy.
First of all, Italians are mostly racist, and reading a foreign sounding surname they get a whole idea of you being a foreigner from Eastern countries who came to "steal" from them. Seriously, I got given a talk of sort in a public hospital, and when I told the lady that I was born and raised in Italy, and so my parents, she said that "that no longer matters, nowadays".
Racism in Italy is sadly widely accepted, there is no political correctness and even politicians makes it to the newspaper or national TV quacking racist stuff against this ethnic group or the other.

Second, I have a J in my surname - in German was I - and this seems to crash their brain, even in computer age. They either change it to Y, I or misplace the other letters around it. It is really crazy what a J can do on some Italian brains - it is like they never noticed such a letter existed - it is a foreign letter in the Italian alphabet, though it was used in the past to write phonetically I in certain uses. I suppose the combination of a foreign-looking word and a J causes the crash.

Another "bug" I encountered is that since I look like a foreigner, they expect me to talk like a foreigner. I heard people telling me "I was sure you were a foreigner because of your foreign accent (?)". Yeah, they saw me with physical features of a foreigner thus I could only talk like a foreigner. It is the Duck Test. There were people that insisted I was not Italian because my last name doesn't sound Italian and I don't look like an Italian, and my great-grandfather came from the Austro-Hungarian empire so technically I am not Italian. (On a side note, I'd gladly trade my Italian citizenship for the Austrian one, but I suppose the Duck Test wouldn't work for the Austrian authorities.)

Third, as a marketing feature, it is better to be thought as German than from an unclear part of the Balkans.

Fourth, when at the university or in a public place where you are called by surname, I always knew my turn was when the lady/man calling stopped and frowned looking at his/her list.
Then two things happened: I was not even asked for an ID because I was CLEARLY the foreigner with the foreign face and foreign surname AND/OR I was asked to tell my family history in front of a crowd, explain pronunciation, etc.

Fifth, my surname as it is written now, is pronounced in another way because we have a phonetic alphabet and the sound of S is "s" and not "sch". I think the sound changed at least 3 or 4 generations ago and my father didn't even know/remember about this change, although I remember my grandpa telling me the whole story once, when I was a child. I think the older generation simply gave up. After some wars they lost their wealth, their house, and even their name.

Dilma Rousseff and Axel Kicillof seem to be doing quite OK.

They are luckily living an a "new" and multiethnic country, just like the people from the US on this forum. Go to Europe and tell me how they would have made it with those surnames!

"C" is pronounced differently in Christina Ricci, Joe Pesci and Emir Kusturica's last names.

If I am not wrong, in Kusturica it should sound like a Z, correct?

If it bothers you how people say your last name, just explain it a couple of times.

Or get a stage name like Lady Gaga .

Stage name stage name! B)


About the husband/wife last name discussion, in Italy we do just like described for Spain above.
However the legal name remains the maiden name, the married name is used only for social purposes but has no legal validity. The children take the father's last name only, although from time to time I read on Italian newspaper that they want allow the possibility to take the mother's last name but I am not sure if this was already approved. YOu cannot imagine the kind of bullshit people in Italy throw even at this stuff.

 

[henryb]

If I am not wrong, in Kusturica it should sound like a Z, correct?

TS

link to forvo.com

 

[CharlotteLucy]

Hi, I got married last month and want to change my last name to my husbands, I was just going to change it in my home country and then try with the paper work here, but now people have worried me saying that its not possible and it will just cause a lot of confusion, which I don´t really want as i´m planning to live here permanently.

I know this forum conversation originally started in 2014.. I´m just wondering if anyone knows if there has been any updates in this area? Is there any stories of people actually suceeding in changing their surname after marriage here?

Thank you!

 

[ElCordobés]

My wife and I, both US-born and raised married in the US, had our second child in Argentina. We obtained permanent residency with her married name and about a year later obtained Argentine citizenship. Her married name was also accepted. After that, she obtained Dutch citizenship and surprisingly, they also accepted her married name (the law was somewhat recently changed). She is eligible for Italian through me but they will require that she use her maiden name. Uruguay forced her to use her maiden name as well when we had obtained temporary residency.

She changed the spelling of her first name when we were married. It's only reflected on the marriage license application and the marriage certificate. Even this was accepted for everything but Uruguay.

Were you married in home country or Argentina?

 

[ben]

Move to a country that lets you change your name, change it, gain citizenship of said country, give up Argentine citizenship, move back to Argentina, gain citizenship with new name, win? :lol:

Even this won't work, I believe.

I understand that when foreigners get papers here, the authorities are normally interested only in the birth documents.

I have a couple of clients from the US whose US passport credit cards etc are in their married surname, and their DNI and Argentine credit cards are in the maiden name. Having come here when they were already married, mind you.

 

[ElCordobés]

Even this won't work, I believe.

I understand that when foreigners get papers here, the authorities are normally interested only in the birth documents.

I have a couple of clients from the US whose US passport credit cards etc are in their married surname, and their DNI and Argentine credit cards are in the maiden name. Having come here when they were already married, mind you.

Strange. We never receive a second glance at migracion about my wife's name. Nor at the court. We did provide US marriage certificates in both cases. And we received our permanent residency from our newborn and her Argentina birth certificate had my wife's maiden name.