We construct two classes of singular Kobayashi hyperbolic surfaces in P 3 . The first consists of generic projections of the cartesian square V = C × C of a generic genus g ≥ 2 curve C smoothly embedded in P 5 . These surfaces have C-hyperbolic normalizations; we give some lower bounds for their degrees and provide an example of degree 32. The second class of examples of hyperbolic surfaces in P 3 is provided by generic projections of the symmetric square V ′ = C 2 of a generic genus g ≥ 3 curve C. The minimal degree of these surfaces is 16, but this time the normalizations are not C-hyperbolic.Proposition 1.1. Let X be a reduced compact complex space, and let π : X → X be the normalization of X. Assume that the space X is Kobayashi hyperbolic and let S ⊂ X, resp. S := π(S) ⊂ X, be the ramification divisor, resp. the branching divisor, so that the restriction π | (X \ S) : X \ S → X \ S is biholomorphic. Then X is Kobayashi hyperbolic if and only if S is Kobayashi hyperbolic.Proof. Clearly, if the space X is hyperbolic, then so is the subspace S of X. By the Brody Theorem [5] (see [18], [20, (3.6.3)] or [45] for the case of complex spaces), the compact complex space X is hyperbolic iff any holomorphic mapping f : C → X is constant. Assuming that the branching divisor S is hyperbolic, we may restrict the consideration to the mappings f : C → X with the image not contained in S. In this case f can be lifted to X (see [34]) and hence, in virtue of the hyperbolicity of the complex space X, it is constant.Applying Proposition 1.1 to the case where V ⊂ P N , N ≥ 4, is a smooth Kobayashi hyperbolic surface (e.g., V can be isomorphic to the cartesian product of two smooth projective curves Γ 1 and Γ 2 of genera g 1 , g 2 ≥ 2) and V ⊂ P 3 is a generic projection of V with the irreducible double curve S, we obtain the following statement: Corollary 1.2. Let V ⊂ P 3 be a generic projection of a Kobayashi hyperbolic smooth projective surface. Then V is Kobayashi hyperbolic iff the double curve S is Kobayashi hyperbolic; i.e., iff the geometric genus of S is at least 2.