Yesterday, Andrea and I went to see the new spanish film, Ocho Apellidos Vascos (Eight Basque Surnames). Image source.
An incredibly funny film, but with a lot of references that you need to have grown up here to understand. I got a fair bit of it, but Andrea had to explain some of the finer points.
A point in the film, which Andrea confirmed with one of her workmates today, is that it is considered import in the Basque Country to be able to name all eight of your grandparents’ surnames.
Wait! I hear you saying, who has eight grandparents? For the interested reader – anyone? – I’ll cover this tomorrow.
For today, I’ll leave you with my eight surnames.
- McSweeney
- Smith
- Clune
- Wilson
- Lees
- Duncan
- Airey
- Stainsby
Thanks to Thea’s genealogy work, I could quickly look up the ones that I’d forgotten. I suppose I should make a point of not forgetting them again.