#04 TRANSCRIPTION PODCAST: Name and Surname

#4 TRANSCRIPTION PODCAST: Name and surname

Eva: Hello, this´s Eva from “English por doquier English everywhere”

Today Podcast is about NAME AND SURNAME.

And Susan is here to help us to understand how different this matter between British and Spanish language is.

 Eva: Hi Susan!

Susan: Hi Eva, How are you?

Eva: Pretty good, and you?

Susan: and fine, thank you.

 

 Firstly a bit of vocabulary

Nombre, Nombre propio: name or forename is a name as birth name. Also sometime we say “first name”.  Examples: Maybe John, Jack, Jane.

Maiden name, What is a Maiden name? It´s the surname of your father. If you got married. So quite often we say what is your, maiden name or the name of your mother. Sometimes, they will ask you, what is the name of your mother?

 En español disponemos de “Nombre de pila” a qué refiere en inglés:  a Christian name, quite often we just said “Christian name” which means your first name and doesn´t  matter if you are or you are not religious.

 

Eva: Es decir aunque seas musulmán o protestante, un policía te puede preguntar, Can you give me your Christian name? Yes, and this would be your first name. They always ask you for your Christian name, your first name.

 

What is the middle name?

The middle name is quite often; it could be any name parent´s like. But quite often is the way to give respect to a family member and maybe is the name after your name of your grandfather or grandmother.

For example: Yes, John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Yes, (Tip: Fitzgerald) That is was his mother maiden name. (Tip: whose maiden name was Rose Fitzgerald, and also his maternal grandfather, John Fitzgerald)

When do we use senior or junior?

It is tend to be an American tradition. We only would say that to clear something up, if maybe a father or a son has the same name but we don´t said John Smith Junior in the UK.

Para decir por ejemplo, John Smith hijo.

Eva: What is a nickname? ¿ Es un diminutive?

Susan: We could say, shorten the name. For example, we would maybe say: Phillip- Phil, Thomas becomes Tom or Christopher becomes Chris.

What are the Spanish ones?

Pues, por ejemplo Pilar; Pili. Francisco; Paco.  

 

Apodos y motes: Nickname, pen name or Alias. 

Hay un mote para los niños y no tan niños que se dice a una persona cuando tienes las orejas grandes. ¿Existe algo similar en inglés?

We would say, “wingnut”, sometimes, big ears. Orejón.

 

Eva: Los españoles  Susan, como bien sabes tenemos un nombre,  un primer y segundo apellido. El primero suele corresponder al padre y el segundo al de la madre. Aunque a partir de 1990 el orden se puede invertir.

Sin embargo en países de lengua inglesa no se sigue este orden.

 

Susan: Yes, you are right. We have just what is a surname, or sometimes que call it, a last name or family name.

When you are born, you take the parent´s name. And, it is normally the name of the father.  

 

And Susan what happens when you get married?

If you get married, traditionally you take the name of your husband, then you don´t use your maiden name again. It is only if they ask you, what is  your maiden name.

And, if someone asks you, how do we answer to the request.  Please, write your full name.

I would write my name as; Susan Allen, because Allen is the name of my father, and there is no really reference weather you are married or not. So, for that reason we have the option to address ourselves as: Ms, Miss or Mrs.

 

Y ahora un chiste sobre este tema, come on, “Go ahead”

Susan: Ok.

A policeman stops a driver on the road and he asks the driver, can you identify yourself, Sir? So the driver, then he looks in the mirror and says, “Yes, that is me.” Obviously, the policeman was wanted your driving licence and identify by themselves.

You really never carry it with you, most people don´t, sometimes maybe because you can have a plastic card, but traditionally we never carry out, driving licence, passport, anything like these.

 

Now a little bit of history

Eva: Because about all of these ideas names and surnames. I think is good to know when Normans in contrast to Anglo- Saxons and their Germanic roots. Not only introduced,  French words as “Surname”, Castles, political structures, and the construction of Cathedrals as Westminister Abbey. William the Conquer invaded England in 1066 (Ten-sixty- six) bringing to Britain the Norman traditions. Since his coronation, all coronations of English and British monarchs have been in Westminster Abbey. 

 

Susan, and before Normans, were there surnames in Britain? 

Susan: Yes, before the Normans, we had the Old English word for “ Surname”  this was freonama, literally meaning "free name." It could be the “family name” is first found late 14c. Hereditary surnames existed among Norman nobility in England in the early 12c., and they began to use surnames by the end of 14c.

The “free name” that is something so curious and interesting, it gives the possibility to create your own surname. It speaks about territories, about the professions and about the family.

Can you tell some ones?

Susan: Yes, the most popular surname in the Uk is Smith and it is the time for the Normans conquest, when the people worked with the metals, a blacksmith, a locksmith, so everything it would be a class of smith, so that is why is a common surname. 

Johnson or Jones, which would be a very traditional name in Welsh and, sometimes Johnson would be the son of John.

 

Williams, again, because we have a lot of kings Williams, so it becomes Williams, William the conquer and, it translates as desire and protection.

 

Eva: and William Shakespeare, and Taylor (Tip: Tailor) is somebody would made clothes, although now the spelling is different but it refers to that and  Davies is a family name for David, or Davison, there are quite a lot of different spelling with it.

 

How different it is from Spanish culture. Something that brings to my mind the Domesday Book ( El libro del juicio final) . Can you tell us a little bit about this book and why have we decided to speak about this now.

It was an important time in English History because it was compiled in 1085 by a King, he wanted to know, who owns each piece of land and still valid today in our title of land and, it became one of the first of earliest public records in the UK and, it was a survey that it was drawn on the order of King William the First or William the conquer. And it describes in detail who own each land and what he had and show them the power of the government, but I think also not only they wanted to know everything about everybody, it was also they could collect taxes and it was nothing similar I believing in contemporary Europe about that time, it was like a population census which for us didn´t coming until the 19c. But it wasn´t a full census, it was only for the people who own land, it would be mainly fthe nobility and rich people.

 The Domesday Book that is “El libro del juicio final” tells a lot about Europe and about the surname and the professions and, we can have an idea about many cultural and anthropological questions.

It is amazing how through certain words we can understand history better. 

Susan: Yes, British history is full of words that tell the history of the invaders really and their conquest. And how they became to rule the country.

 

Susan, en España los apellidos más comunes son: 

Primero, García, después González , Rodríguez  y  Martínez.

He hecho un poquito de investigación y hasta donde he podido llegar, García, hace referencia a la familia, designa un linaje y está extendido en la península ibérica, en América, Filipinas o Francia pero no existe un significado claro. El cardenal Cisneros en 1505, decidió fijar los apellidos  como los tenemos hasta ahora, es decir con nombre y primer y segundo apellido.

We have learnt a lot and I am very glad for all that you have mentioned and, all the information that you give, that it is so difficult to find in any book.

I think so, too. I think, the way than our surnames and names are very different to the way you do it in Spain. So, it is very useful to know the differences what you would be required if you are asked for certain questions.

Thank you very much, by for now, by for now.