Editing Surname (section)

==== Compound surnames ====
Beyond the seemingly "compound" surname system in the Spanish-speaking world, there are also true compound surnames. These true compound surnames are passed on and inherited as compounds. For instance, former chairman of the [[Military junta|Supreme Military Junta]] of [[Ecuador]], General [[Luis Telmo Paz y Miño]] Estrella, has [[Luis]] as his first given name, Telmo as his middle name, the true compound surname Paz y Miño as his first (i.e. paternal) surname, and Estrella as his second (i.e. maternal) surname. Luis Telmo Paz y Miño Estrella is also known more casually as Luis Paz y Miño, Telmo Paz y Miño, or Luis Telmo Paz y Miño. He would never be regarded as Luis Estrella, Telmo Estrella, or Luis Telmo Estrella, nor as Luis Paz, Telmo Paz, or Luis Telmo Paz. This is because "Paz" alone is not his surname (although other people use the "Paz" surname on its own).<ref name=":0" /> In this case, [[Pazmiño|Paz y Miño]] is in fact the paternal surname, being a true compound surname. His children, therefore, would inherit the compound surname "Paz y Miño" as their paternal surname, while Estrella would be lost, since the mother's paternal surname becomes the children's second surname (as their own maternal surname). "Paz" alone would not be passed on, nor would "Miño" alone.{{citation needed|date=February 2023}}

To avoid ambiguity, one might often informally see these true compound surnames hyphenated, for instance, as Paz-y-Miño. This is true especially in the [[English-speaking world]], but also sometimes even in the Hispanic world, since many Hispanics are unfamiliar with this and other compound surnames, "Paz y Miño" might be inadvertently mistaken as "Paz" for the paternal surname and "Miño" for the maternal surname. Although Miño did start off as the maternal surname in this compound surname, it was many generations ago, around five centuries, that it became compounded, and henceforth inherited and passed on as a compound.{{citation needed|date=February 2023}}

Other surnames which started off as compounds of two or more surnames, but which merged into one single word, also exist. An example would be the surname [[Pazmiño]], whose members are related to the Paz y Miño, as both descend from the "Paz Miño" family{{citation needed|date=February 2023}} of five centuries ago.<!--This isn't a specific century! What century is this? See WP:DATED.-->

[[Álava]], Spain is known for its incidence of true compound surnames, characterized for having the first portion of the surname as a patronymic, normally a Spanish patronymic or more unusually a [[Basque language|Basque]] patronymic, followed by the [[preposition]] "de", with the second part of the surname being a placename from Álava.{{citation needed|date=March 2023}}