In Spanish, we have different names for the different types of periods:
I'd like to know if there are similar names in English because I didn't found anything about that. And Merry Christmas!
As others have posted, English does not have different names for periods in different positions.
However, possibly relevant:
I use speech recognition software and dictate much of what I would otherwise type.
When dictating, if I am staying within a paragraph, I say "period". If I am starting a new paragraph I say "period", followed by "new paragraph" or "end paragraph". And if I am dictating a message, I might terminate by saying "period", followed by "send" or "end message".
These phrases might be useful for the Spanish speaker who wants to express these distinctions in English:
"Period" or the more explicit "period (at) end (of) sentence".
"Period, end paragraph" - "period (at) end (of) paragraph".
"Period, end document" -- "period (at) end (document)".
These phrases naturally generalize to any chunk of text - "Period, End Message", or section, or chapter, or quote[*] or verse or line (of poetry) or ... Similarly for any form of punctuation, e.g. "question mark, end paragraph". Even "comma, end paragraph" - which is not considered grammatically correct, but nevertheless can be expressed.
These are not official or standard phrases in English, but I believe most English speakers will easily understand them. They might be used in a quick and dirty translation, although a good translator will usually find expressions more natural to English.
BTW, "new paragraph" feels more active, e.g. when dictating text to a secretary or a program, possibly jumping around while editing, whereas "end paragraph" is more descriptive, e.g. when something is being read back to you. But these distinctions are fuzzy.
Similarly, one nearly always says "begin quote", followed by the content, and then "end quote". Alternatives: open/close or left/right. But you would not say "new quote" or "next quote" unless you are in a list of quotes. I.e. "new paragraph" or "next paragraph" terminates the current paragraph and starts a new item of the same type.
Note *: Should you place a period inside or outside quotation marks? In one survey Americans said "yes." In another survey, "Britons said "no". Source: [Canadian college webpage][1]
[1]: https://libguides.royalroads.ca/punctuation-capitalization/period#:~:text=The%20American%20style%2C%20which%20is,(Lee%2C%202011%2C%20para.
In English, we can distinguish the sentences within a paragraph, such as the first or opening sentence, the last or closing sentence, and often a topic sentence that states the main idea of the paragraph. Each and every sentence requires its own period, all these periods are typographically and functionally identical, and no period has a special name according to its position within a paragraph or written work.
The last sentence of a paragraph thus has its own period, but I've never seen this period afforded a special name, nor have I seen the last period of a work or chapter referred to as the "final period." In other words, periods function to end individual sentences and also happen to end paragraphs or written pieces. It is spacing/indentation and not the last period that actually determines the end of each paragraph and the start of the next.
I wonder whether what you describe for Spanish is a technique for dictation or dictation exercises where the speaker pronounces punctuation (or even "meta punctuation") to convey normally unspoken or subtly spoken formatting information. Dictation aside, once students understand the role of the period in sentence construction, focusing on and categorizing the periods when teaching paragraph construction seems like an unnecessary complication.
This isn't really a concept that English speakers find necessary to name, but one term you could use for punto y aparte would be "paragraph-final period". For punto final, you could use "text-final period". For punto seguido, you could use "paragraph-internal period" or "intra-paragraph period".
