Catherine said: >>But he would normally sign his name Rafael Balarezo Berumen or Rafael Balarezo B. That drove Anglo-Canadian immigration types nuts, because you just *can't* have something coming *after* your last name.<< Here in Spain where everyone (natives I mean, not immigrants) has a paternal and maternal surname the outsiders are those, like myself, who only have their father's surname. Unfortunately, for bureaucracy, I have two first names (sic) and therefore end up as (first name) David with two surnames (Michael and Pritchard). Therefore they file my records under M, not P. Worst still, when I tried to get an internet account here and tried to fill out the on-line forms I was unable to do so because I lacked a second surname (Have these people not realised that there are hundreds of thousands of immigrants here from all over the world with only paternal surnames?). The answer? The guy at the helpdesk arbitrarily assigned me the second surname 'Gonzalez'. I could have asked for my mother's name (Evans) or my girlfriend's name (Vendrell) but I was told that I was now Gonzalez. I don't use that account any more and wonder if I will remain on record under that name. mike in bcn
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