My full legal name in United States American (USA) English is "Nicole Lee Sharp". My forename is "Nicole", my nickname is "Nikki", my middle name is "Lee", and my surname is "Sharp". "Nikki" is a diminutive or hypocoristic form of "Nicole" and is appropriate to use as a friendly name for informal address. My middle name is reserved only for formal address and should only be used in conjunction with both my forename and surname ("Nicole Lee Sharp") and not as a second forename, composite forename, or composite surname (I should not be addressed as "Lee", "Nicole Lee", or "Lee Sharp"). For example: a friend, neighbor, or colleague should refer to me as "Nicole", "Nikki", "Nicole Sharp", or "Sharp" and not as "Nicole Lee Sharp". My full name is only for formal circumstances such as an academic publication, government form, or medical/banking records. I refer to myself as "Nicole", "Nikki", or "Nicole Sharp" and sign most documents as "Nicole Sharp". I only sign as "Nicole Lee Sharp" for very important or very formal documents. Maryland (USA) is a common-law state which means that common names are legal names; signing a document as my common name "Nicole Sharp" is just faster and easier for simple or rote forms than signing as my full formal name of "Nicole Lee Sharp" especially when multiple signatures are required.[M]
"Sharp" is my paternal surname and sole legal surname (apellido) in both English and Spanish. As an English-speaking Colombian American born in the United States of America (USA), my full name translated from USA English to Colombian Spanish is "Nicole Lee Sharp Ruiz Frey Serrano". Shorter forms are "Nicole Lee Sharp Ruiz" and "Nicole Sharp Ruiz". For alphabetization by surname, the Colombian Spanish name "Nicole Lee Sharp Ruiz" is indexed as "Sharp Ruiz, Nicole Lee" and not as "Ruiz, Nicole Lee Sharp" because "Sharp Ruiz" is a single composite surname (a compound proper noun with a space).
In Colombian Spanish, surnames come in pairs to describe the lineage of each generation of ancestors. The first surname pair (composite surname) of "Sharp Ruiz" is my first-generation paternal surname (the surname of my father) followed by my first-generation maternal surname (the premarriage surname of my mother). The second surname pair of "Frey Serrano" is my second-generation paternal surname (the premarriage surname of my paternal grandmother) followed by my second-generation maternal surname (the premarriage surname of my maternal grandmother).
Above is a family tree for Nicole Sharp Ruiz Frey Serrano showing how surnames (apellidos) were determined in Colombian Spanish before August 2021.[W, A, E, C] What I have done above is listed my ancestors from each generation by their surnames in a gender-neutral English/Spanish alphabetical order ("Ruiz Serrano" before "Sharp Frey") but retained the historical patrilineality of the surname ordering ("Ruiz Serrano" and not "Serrano Ruiz"). Before 2021, Colombian surnames for the children of female/male parental couples were gender-discriminated under a patriarchal law where the surnames of female ancestors (♀) were required to be listed after those of male ancestors (♂). In addition to the inherent injustice of legalized gender discrimination, the requirement in Colombia of such a binary-gendered heteronormative naming order created serious problems with determining the legal composite surnames for the children of parents who were not female/male couples.
Article 16 of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (UN CEDAW) from December 1979 states that it is a violation for a government to force parents to give their children only surnames from a single parent.[W, U] For example, if a child of a female/male couple is required to have only a single surname from the father, this is a misogynistic violation of women’s rights because it erases the entire maternal lineage of not just the child but all of the child’s descendents. Likewise, it is also a violation for a government to force parents who are female/male couples to give preference to a paternal surname over that of a maternal surname. The USA has signed but not ratified the UN CEDAW but is otherwise in compliance with Article 16 since the USA does not have any federal laws that prevent parents from creating new surnames for their children. The only requirement in USA English is that children have only one surname which means that composite surnames have to be hyphenated ("Ruiz-Sharp" or "Sharp-Ruiz").
Compliance with the United Nations CEDAW legally applies only to governments and not to individuals. The purpose of the CEDAW is to prevent discrimination against individuals by governments. This means that parents should have the legal freedom to choose surnames for their children in accordance with their own personal principles and family traditions and that children should likewise have the legal freedom to change their surnames when they become adults. For the child of female/male couple, whether using only a paternal surname is misogynistic or not ultimately depends upon the consent of the mother. The idea is that all of the parents of a child should have equal say in what the surname of their child should be without one parent suppressing the lineage of another parent without their consent. When the government (or court system) may need to interfere is when parents cannot agree on a surname for a child. The CEDAW was signed and ratified by the Republic of Colombia in January 1982 but Colombia was not fully compliant with Article 16 until August 2021. What happened in 2021 is that Colombia changed its naming laws by allowing parents to choose the order of composite surnames for their children. So after 2021, a child of Ruiz and Sharp can be legally surnamed in Colombian Spanish as either "Ruiz Sharp" or "Sharp Ruiz" without any dependence on the gender(s) of the parents. In the case where parents cannot agree, the surname order is chosen for them by random lottery (sorteo).
States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate [gender] discrimination… in all matters relating to marriage and family relations and in particular shall ensure, on a basis of equality [between genders]: …[t]he same personal rights as [equal spouses], including the right to choose a family name, a profession[,] and an occupation….
— United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women Part IV Article 16 Section 1G (1979), emphasis added.