Catalan Name - Spain's Other Languages - Catalan Names

Catalan Names

The Catalan-speaking territories also abide by the Spanish naming customs, yet usually the discrete surnames are joined with the word i (“and"), instead of the Spanish y, and this practice is very common in formal contexts. For example, the current president of the Generalitat de Catalunya (Government of Catalonia) is formally called El Molt Honorable Senyor Artur Mas i Gavarró. Furthermore, the national language policy enumerated in article 19.1 of Law 1/1998 stipulates that "the citizens of Catalonia have the right to use the proper regulation of their Catalan names and surnames and to introduce the conjunction between surnames".

The correction, translation, and surname-change are regulated by the Registro Civil (Civil Registry) with the Decree 138/2007 of 26 June, modifying the Decree 208/1998 of 30 July, which regulates the accreditation of the linguistic correctness of names. The attributes and functions of Decree 138/2007 of 26 July regulate the issuance of language-correction certificates for translated Catalan names, by the Institut d'Estudis Catalans (Institute of Catalan Studies) in Barcelona. Nevertheless, there are Catalan surnames that conform to neither the current spelling rules nor to the traditionally correct Catalan spelling rules; a language-correction certification can be requested from the Institut d'Estudis Catalans, for names such as these:

  • Casas to Cases
  • Farré to Ferrer
  • Gabarra to Gavarra
  • Jufré to Jofré
  • Mayoral to Majoral
  • Perpiñá to Perpinyà
  • Pijuan to Pijoan
  • Piñol to Pinyol
  • Roselló to Rosselló

Read more about this topic:  Catalan Name, Spain's Other Languages

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