[Bonanza]

Originally Posted by CFrance

True; however, when his staff answers the phone or leaves a message on yours, they say This is "Dr. Martinez-Cruz's office calling." And the sign on his office building says Dr. Martinez Cruz. It's a mouthful. I'd love to call him just Dr. Martinez. Think I'll ask him about it when I go in October. He's that approachable!

If someone follows the true traditional way of using names in Spanish, you will always know if a woman is single, married, a widow, or divorced, and her name changes with each one of these steps (a real pain in the neck!). I have not known many women who after marriage, follow through with the additional name changes, if a divorce or widowhood took place in her life. A man's name will be a combination of his father's name and his mother's maiden name. It's all very interesting.

Dr. Martinez will be happy to talk about the derivation of his name, I'm sure. Yes -- he is that nice!