The name on my birth certificate is Karl Miller Lugo. It's based on Spanish naming customs where the first (paternal name) name is Miller and the second (maternal names) is Lugo. I would be called Senor Miller or Miller Lugo.
That became problematic when I moved to the states at the age of 8 and everyone called me only Karl Lugo. It became so confusing, my grandparents actually changed my social security card to read Karl Miller and asked that Lugo be taken off my grade school lists.
Fast forward 30 years and now the Hispanic community is the fastest growing segment in the United States population. You would think perhaps we would have this whole Spanish surname thing figured out yet.
I don't hold out much hope after opening up my iPhone news apps this morning to see the Argentinian president's name listed differently in almost every article:
Since the Miami Herald and the LA Times have some of the largest Hispanic readerships in the US and they both went with Fernandez or Fernandez de Kirchner, I recommend we go with one of those. Sorry, New York Times and Christian Science Monitor.
And if we can't figure out Spanish surnames, imagine what we're doing to surnames from other nationalities.
We certainly had no idea how to spell Gaddafi, or Kadafi, or Qaddafi, or...
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