Niemeyer was born in the city of Rio de Janeiro on December 15, 1907.[3] He took his German surname from a German Brazilian grandmother with roots in Hanover, Germany. Niemeyer explained, "my name ought to have been Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida de Niemeyer Soares, or simply Oscar de Almeida Soares, but the foreign surname prevailed and I am known simply as Oscar Niemeyer".[6] He spent his youth as a typical young Carioca of the time: bohemian and relatively unconcerned with his future. In 1928, at age 21, Niemeyer left school (Santo Antonio Maria Zaccaria priory school) and married Annita Baldo,[3] daughter of Italian immigrants from Padua.He pursued his passion at the National School of Fine Arts in Rio de Janeiro (Escola Nacional de Belas Artes) and graduated with a BA in architecture in 1934.