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.
The long chain honors saints and relatives. It ends with Ruiz, his father's surname, and Picasso, his mother's, and the world kept only the final word.
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Picasso was born in Málaga, in southern Spain, on October 25, 1881, the son of José Ruiz Blasco, a painter and art teacher, and María Picasso López.
The name the whole world knows today was not always the one he wanted on his work. By nineteen, he had been signing his paintings with his mother's surname, Picasso, for about a year.
Yet in September 1901, when a humorous magazine printed some of his drawings, he put his father's name, Ruiz, at the bottom of them instead.
The saints and the uncle in his name
Pablo Picasso received the whole chain at his baptism in Málaga. Behind almost every word stands a saint or a relative, and the very last one, Picasso, had come to Spain from abroad.
What You'll Discover
Where the surname Picasso came from.
Why he signed Ruiz again in 1901.
Who decides how the name is used today.