JAQ

What's this JAQ?

JAQ stands for "JCAB's Asked Questions". I'd call it a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions), which is a more common name for this, but the fact is that the questions asked and answered here are are not necessarily frequent. It's just a bunch of questions that I want to put here for a reason or another. Usually, it'll just be either questions I've been asked, or questions I've asked myself.

Juan Carlos Arévalo Baeza: Why such a long name?

This question, in some form or another, has actually popped a couple of times over email, and another couple while talking. Here, I'll give you my long answer.

First, I'll make sure you know how to split it properly. My first name is "Juan Carlos". That's right, all of it, no middle name involved. It's the name my parents chose, and it's what I've been called all my life. My last name is "Arévalo Baeza". That's right again, the whole thing.

But why is it so long? The only possible answer is that many Spanish names are quite long. For first names, we use lots of composites. Kind of like the first/middle names in USA, only it's all one long name (Juan Carlos, Francisco Javier, María Matilde, José María, María del Mar, Juan José, José Carlos...). Quite often, they are shortened: Jose María = Chema, Juan José = Juanjo. María del Mar = Marimar. My name doesn't have a common short form, though. Even the King of Spain has a long name: Juan Carlos the first :)

About the long last name: in Spain, women don't generally change their names when they marry. Instead, they keep them and pass them on to their children just like men do. So, My mother being María Matilde Baeza Fernández de Rota and my father being Juan Carlos Arévalo Martínez, I became Juan Carlos Arévalo Baeza. Some people will actually explore their genealogies by continuing to extend their last name, so I'm actually Juan Carlos Arévalo Baeza Martínez Fernández de Rota Díez Torrecilla Román Querol (that accounts for one last name from each of my great-grandparents). Only the two direct names from the father and the mother are considered official, though.

Believe me: after living here in the USA for four years and still keeping my whole name, I've had the most hilarious (and including a pretty scary episode with the IRS) experiences with it. Therefore, I usually put a hyphen in it so that people understand where it begins and where it ends. Sos, I write it as follows: Juan Carlos Arévalo-Baeza.

Note: The fact that "Fernández de Rota" is a single name is kind of like an aberration. There is a story about it, but I forgot. I'll have to re-read my grandmother's memoires to add it here...