[kjellsbells]

Parsing names is like writing a time library. Sounds easy until you learn the hard way that it definitely isnt.

Some examples that come to mind from my experience are applicants with Chinese names that also use a western name professionally ("Yu-Chen Liew, but I go by Janet"), Spanish names that include patronymics ("Penelope Cruz Sanchez") and cultures that place the family name first ("Park Lee"). Maybe (f,l) = split(name, " ") works in some very homogeneous country like Iceland, but it sure doesnt work in the US.

[jkaplowitz]

Yes, agreed - except that the Spanish name convention you describe isn't about patronymics exactly. Patronymics are something like a given language's version of "son [or daughter] of X" where X is a given name of the parent (usually the father).

By contrast, Spanish last names simply use two last names, with a child taking one last name from each parent. Traditionally this is the father's first last name followed by the mother's first last name, though efforts toward gender equality have made the law more flexible nowadays in both Spain and many other countries.

It doesn't violate Spanish naming conventions for given names to be reused in the next generation, and some families do that, but that isn't patronymic since it's not a "son/daughter of X" name, just a reused given name.