“It’s Angelo Michael, like the artist but backwards..and I have two surnames”
“Wait, two surnames?”
“Yes, we normally take one name from each parent. My sister has six!”
“How so?”
“Two of her own, two from our parents, and two from her husband”
“I think it can get complicated very quickly”
“True, some of our royal family have over twelve”


I stopped Angelo with a “Nice camera!” and a handshake, which is unusual with a stranger at first point of contact - this just shows Angelo’s nature.

We chatted first about photography (of course), what he enjoys shooting etc. Angelo is mainly a sports photographer, concentrating on dirt track racing around his home town of Albufeira, Portugal. He is taking a long trip, having visited several cities in Scotland for a few weeks, slowly making his way down south visiting friends along the way. He mentioned he had planned to do a trip involving the Trans Siberian Railway but due to visa restrictions he had to call that off…so he was here, in Leeds. I said there was no better place :)

He mentioned he had had a fantastic time in Scotland, and the people were really friendly but he just couldn’t keep up with the drinking.

“Have you been out in Leeds at all?”
“Yes, last night. It was a much more quieter night, which was good as I needed to recover from Scotland!”
“You should visit the German Xmas market”, I said, and proceeded to give him directions.

It was when I took his name, that I came to learn about Portuguese surnames and their naming laws. Basically, the Portuguese inherit surnames from both sides of the family, meaning they can have from two to four family names. Also, unless one of the parents is foreign, they can only choose a given name from an officially approved list, which follows it’s own strict laws.

I don’t know how I feel about this.

On one hand, I think a name is an important part of who you are, and I like the diversity of names from different cultures and backgrounds. On the otherhand, naming a child is taken as a very serious responsibility there, rather than a right. If anything, it would certainly stop the ridiculous names we get over here sometimes - Apple, Princess Tiaamii, and Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily, naming just a few!

Have a fantastic weekend folks!


Humans of Leeds