Pablo Picasso's full name was Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso. It strings together saints and relatives, as Andalusian baptisms often did. Ruiz was his father's surname, Picasso his mother's, and the world kept only the last word.
He was born in Málaga on 25 October 1881, the son of José Ruiz Blasco, a painter and art teacher, and María Picasso López.
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The world kept Picasso, but the painter himself hesitated. At nineteen, he had been signing his paintings with his mother's name for about a year. Then, in September 1901, a humorous magazine printed some of his drawings, and he signed them with his father's name instead.
The man who turned Picasso into a world-famous name did not always want it on his work. I think that one signature says more about the name than any christening string.
What You'll Discover
Who all those names were for.
Who first carried the name Picasso.
Why his father's name came back.
Who controls the name today.