Hi,
my name is Rafael and this is my first English course on line.I come from Barcelona but now I live in Borgonyà, near Vic.Talking about common names, in my country I have to say that nowdays there is a great variety of them but a few ones like Marc, Jordi or Pol for men, and Maria, Carme or Roser for women are very populars.
My family name is Cajo, not a common name in Spain, and its meaning is relationated with the printer profession but nobody knows that because is a extremaly rare word in spanish. Also in my country there are several names refer to professions like Fuster (carpenter), Calderé (boilermaker) or Ferrer (smith).
There are some foreign popular names in Spain like Jennifer, Kevin or David, always changing like the lists of most popular actors/actress on american films.
Normally when you meet someone for the first time we use the first name but in special cases like laboral situations, old people or vip personalities we can use the surname instead. With these ones we use normally Mr. and Mrs. but sometimes like in laboral or study places not.
Finally common names in my country that show affection are very creative and variated, for example churri, cariño, amor.