There is only one way I'll pay attention to you…

gamaral / Guillermo / Memo / William/ Billy / Willy / Wonka / Antonio / Anthony / Tony talks about how names are constructed or used in Mexico. However, the formula is not for all of Latin America (i.e. it does not apply to the South Cone, as they still don't find a use for keeping the mother's family name). Also, while in the USA the mother's family name is not used, in most of Europe it is.

The use of second given names is quite strange IMO: You are supposed to go in your life by your first name, while keeping the second (or middle) name just as an initial, and as something people don't mess with or try to understand. People usually have regular, easy firstnames (no, don't look at me, my parents tried hard to be original on all fronts), while their second/middle names are as unknown and strange as they can be.

Also, few people use their middle names — My father, for one. His name is Kurt Bernardo; my grandmother wanted to honor both her brothers, who stayed in Austria (Kurt and Bernhardt). My father was known as Kurt as a kid, but decided to prefer Bernardo (which is a very common name in Mexico) as his primary denomination. Why would it be otherwise?

Anyway… Even if my name is Gunnar Eyal Wolf Iszaevich (of Scandinavian, Hebrew, German and Polish origin respectively), even while I lived in Israel, I didn't use Eyal — I have one name, and one way for people to call me. Oh, and also, no aliases since the BBS era finished. Gunnar, that's the only way my brain understands I should pay attention. And I intend on keeping it that way!