Policy-Discussion

["Alejandro Mery Pellegrini (CAcert)" <amery AT cacert.cl>]

> - In Spanish countries the surnames are a combination of the
> parents names, in some formula I never quite understood.  I
> suspect this can also have complications.

It's pretty simple, it's not a combined surname, they are _two_ family
names, one representing the family of the father and one the family of
the mother. The child gets as first surname the first surname of his
father and as second surname the first name of his mother. In normal
life people only use the first family name (In my case just "Alejandro
Mery", but on legal documents you _write_ both.

Cheers,

-- 
Alejandro Mery Pellegrini
CAcert Chile
http://cacert.cl