Eileen Brophy (asker) Sep 6, 2017:

@MollyRose You are very kind MollyRose, thank you for your generosity <3 <3

MollyRose Sep 6, 2017:

not a waste of time We all learned something from this! Thanks, Eileen, for telling us "the end of the story."

Eileen Brophy (asker) Sep 6, 2017:

@Beatriz Ramirez de Haro Not only my time, the time of those who were helping to find a valid translation too... Grrrrr!!! Bye for now, back to work. Thank you everyone for your help <3 <3

Beatriz Ramírez de Haro Sep 6, 2017:

Of course Eileen, certainly not your mistake. He should have told you from the start instead of wasting your time!

Eileen Brophy (asker) Sep 6, 2017:

@Beatriz Ramirez de Haro Hi Beatriz, It was not my mistake it was the person who wrote the text.....
I asked my client to clarify the meaning of the word "PATRONÍMICO" and he answered "Aaah, lo de “patronímico”, vaya forma de expresarlo! Ni yo lo entendía sin el resto del texto! Quizá tendrían que haber puesto “gentilicio”, es decir, argentino, alemán, italiano… Hoy en día “patronímico" es el “apellido” del medio de los rusos, como Vladimir ILICH Lenin, etc."

Then, in his last mail he said
"Ya, el uso no es correcto pero yo como nativo, y por el contexto, entiendo perfectamente que se refiere al adjetivo del país de origen de la persona. La pregunta es para los NO NACIDOS EN ESPAÑA, y entonces pregunta si se sienten de su país de origen"

Beatriz Ramírez de Haro Sep 6, 2017:

Demonym = gentilicio Hi Eileen, in that case your ST was wrong, as "patronímico" and "gentilicio" are not synonymous.

patronímico, ca
Del lat. tardío patronymĭcus, y este del gr. πατρωνυμικός patrōnymikós.
1. adj. Dicho de un nombre propio de una persona: Que deriva del de su padre o de otro antecesor masculino, y que originariamente indicaba su filiación o pertenencia a un linaje;

gentilicio, cia
Del lat. gentilicius, der. de gentīlis 'que pertenece a una misma nación o a un mismo linaje'.
1. adj. Dicho de un adjetivo o de un sustantivo: Que denota relación con un lugar geográfico. U. t. c. s. m.
2. adj. Perteneciente o relativo a las gentes o naciones.
3. adj. Perteneciente o relativo al linaje o familia.

http://dle.rae.es/?id=SBsEu2Y
http://dle.rae.es/?id=J6BWnNL

Eileen Brophy (asker) Sep 6, 2017:

@Helena Chavarria I agree Helena, that is why I said that it is a rather strange word to use in a survey for people who are not Spanish.

Helena Chavarria Sep 6, 2017:

I know the word 'demonym' because I live in Spain. However, I don't think many 'normal' English-speaking natives have ever heard of the word.

Eileen Brophy (asker) Sep 6, 2017:

@Charles Davis Apparently it is a question asking if they feel that they belong to their country of origin or not. Spanish mentality, the more difficult the text the better my culture.... duhhhh. (No offence intended, for Spanish people). I think text is to communicate not confuse....

Charles Davis Sep 6, 2017:

@Eileen Thanks for telling us; it's always interesting to find out what happened. I wonder how many people answering this survey will have to look up "demonym" in a dictionary. Probably all of them, I would guess.

Eileen Brophy (asker) Sep 6, 2017:

Demonym Demonym is the word that my client has given my (in Spanish) Thank you all for your help.

Charles Davis Sep 6, 2017:

@Eileen I see your point, but I don't think I would express it like that. Take, for example, the case of the adopted daughter of a friend of ours. She is ethnically Chinese (about 20 years ago a lot of people were adopting Chinese girls, given up for adoption because of the single-child policy: if people could only have one child they usually wanted it to be a boy). She was adopted as a baby. Of course her biological mother and father must have been Chinese, but the only family she has ever had is Spanish. It's not even certain that her parents were themselves a family. So her country of origin is China, but it isn't really her family origin since she has no sense of any connection with a Chinese family. Nevertheless, she might feel a sense of connection with China: she might feel Chinese.

Eileen Brophy (asker) Sep 6, 2017:

Family origins Could family origins be a way of translating PATRONÍMICO, perhaps or families national origins?

Charles Davis Sep 6, 2017:

@Helena I suggested "nationality of origin" as a neater formulation, meaning nationality corresponding to the country of origin, but I think you're right to make the distinction, since "nationality of origin" would probably be taken to mean a person's original nationality, and that will not invariably be what they are referring to. It is quite possible that a person of foreign extraction living in Spain has never held any other nationality. It depends what one means by "país de origen". It may or may not be the country of birth; it might be the country from which one's parents emigrated, for example. So better your way, I think.

As for Robin's comment, I was well aware that "patronímico" is probably alluding to "patria" here. I even checked to see whether there is a word "patrionímico" meaning the name of one's "patria" (there isn't). The idea behind it is presumably "father country", but the fact remains that "patronímico" is not correctly used here.

This idea of allegiance to origin is of course very strong within Spain, for example. My wife has lived in Valencia from an early age but originates from elsewhere and has always been quite clear that she is not Valencian.

Helena Chavarria Sep 5, 2017:

Re-reading my comment, I realise that I should have written '(Name/Write/State) nationality that corresponds to the country of origin'. Unless a person has to state their original nationality.

Eileen Brophy (asker) Sep 5, 2017:

@Molly Rose It is a public survey/social research and they are simply questions, so there is no context available, I am sorry, if there were more context I would have included it, as context is ALWAYS requested by everyone.

MollyRose Sep 5, 2017:

prime example of need for CONTEXT.

Helena Chavarria Sep 5, 2017:

Depending on what it's for, I'd probably write something like '(Name/Write/State) nationality of the country of origin.