Before Romans entered the territory of present-day Portugal, the native people identified themselves by a single name, or that name followed by a patronym. The names could be
Celtic (Mantaus),
Lusitanian (Casae), Iberian (Sunua) or
Conii (Alainus). The names were clearly ethnic and some typical of a tribe or region. A slow adoption of the
Roman onomastic occurred after the end of the first century AD, with the adoption of a
Roman name or of the tria nomina: praenomen (given name), nomen (gentile) and
cognomen.
Surnames originating from patronymics Most Portuguese surnames have a patronymical, locative or religious origin. Patronymics are names derived from the father's personal name that, many centuries ago, began to be used as surnames. They are a common form of surnames in the lands where Portuguese is spoken and also have developed in many other languages. In Portuguese, patronymics are surnames such as
Henriques,
Pires,
Rodrigues,
Lopes,
Nunes,
Mendes,
Fernandes,
Gonçalves,
Esteves and
Álvares, where the ending -es means (
son of). Some surnames that originated in this way do not end in
es; instead they end in
iz, like
Muniz (
son of Monio) and Ruiz (
son of Ruy), or
ins, like
Martins (
son of Martim). Although most Portuguese surnames ending in
-es are former patronymics, some family names with -es- endings are not patronymics, but toponymics, such as Tavares, Cortês and Chaves. Some surnames are equal to personal names, such as
Joana Fernando, or
André João, in which "Fernando" and "João" are surnames. It is rather improbable that those are patronymics; more likely they originated with people with no surnames, who were given two names for the sake of enhanced individuality. One can find today in Portugal and Brazil people who still use surnames that for other people are just personal names, although they were passed from parents to sons for generations, such as Valentim, Alexandre, Fernando, Afonso (note the family name
de Melo Afonso) and Antonio (note
de Melo Antonio). Names like
Dinis,
Duarte,
Garcia and
Godinho were originally personal names, but today they are used in Brazil almost exclusively as surnames, although Duarte and Dinis are still common personal names in Portugal. Matronymics (surnames derived from female personal names) are not used in Portuguese. Surnames such as "Catarino" (from
Catarina) and "Mariano" (meaning related to
Maria) are rather references to Catholic saints (probably originating with the practice of giving a child the name of the saint of the day in which he or she was born). Some former patronymics are not easily recognized, for two main reasons. Sometimes the personal name that was the basis of the patronymic became archaic, such as
Lopo (the basis of
Lopes),
Mendo or
Mem (
Mendes), Soeiro (
Soares), Munio (
Muniz),
Sancho (
Sanches). Also, often the personal names or the related patronymic changed through centuries, although always some resemblance can still be noted – such as
Antunes (son of
Antão or
Antonio),
Peres (son of
Pero, archaic form of
Pedro),
Alves (from
Álvares, son of
Álvaro), and
Eanes (from mediaeval Iohannes, son of
João).
Locative surnames A large number of surnames are
locative, related to the geographical origin of a person, such as the name of a village, town, city, land, river. Such surnames like
Almeida,
Andrada or
Andrade,
Barcelos,
Barros,
Bastos,
Braga,
Beira (edge),
Castelo Branco,
Cintra (from
Sintra),
Coimbra,
Faria,
Gouveia,
Guimarães,
Lima (the name of a river, not meaning
lime),
Lisboa (
Lisbon),
Maia,
Mascarenhas (a civil parish of
Mirandela, Portugal),
Pacheco (from village of Pacheca),
Porto,
Portugal,
Serpa,
Leão (from
León). Some names specify a location of the family's house within the village:
Fonte (by the fountain),
Fontoira/Fontoura (golden fountain),
Azenha (by the water-mill),
Eira (by the threshing-floor),
Tanque (by the community cistern),
Fundo (on the lower part of the village),
Cimo/Cima (on the upper part of the village),
Cabo (on the far end of the village),
Cabral (near the field where the goats graze). In some cases, the family name may not be a locative, but an indication of ownership. Surnames were also derived from geological or geographical forms, such as
Pedroso (stony or full of pebbles land),
Rocha (rock),
Souza/
Sousa (from Latin saxa, a place with seixos, or pebbles),
Vale (valley, dale),
Bierzo (mountain),
Ribeiro/
Rivero (little river, creek, brook),
Siqueira/
Sequeira (a non-irrigated land),
Castro (ruins of ancient buildings, equivalent to English Chester),
Dantas (from d'Antas, a place with antas, i.e. prehistoric stone monuments or dolmens),
Costa (coast),
Pedreira (quarry),
Barreira (clay quarry),
Couto (fenced site),
Outeiro (hill or hillock),
Vilar/Villar (from Latin "villagio", a village),
Seixas (pebbles),
Veiga/
Vega (banks of a river),
Córdoba/Córdova (hill near the river),
Padrão (rock or stone),
Celanova (barn or reservoir). Names of trees or plantations are also locative surnames, originally related to identifying a person who lived near or inside a plantation, an orchard or a place with a characteristic kind of vegetation. Names such as
Silva and
Matos (woods, forest),
Campos (meadows),
Teixeira (a place covered with yew trees),
Queirós (a kind of grass),
Cardoso (a place covered with
cardos, i.e. with cardoons or thistles),
Correia (a place covered with
corriolas or
correas, a kind of plant),
Macedo (an apple tree garden),
Azevedo (a forest of azevinho, a holly wood),
Amaral (a plantation of
amara, a bitter grape used to make wine), and
Arruda (a place with large amounts of Rue, an ornamental plant and herb), fit this pattern. These kinds of surnames were commonly adopted by the Sephardic Jews of Portugal, and Spain as well. However, many Eastern Ashkenazi Jews also chose surnames connected to nature derived from fruit and other trees, plants, vegetables, flowers, mountains, rivers, animals, i.e., Greenbaum (green tree), Rosenberg (rose covered mountain), Bloomgarten (garden of flowers), Applebaum (apple tree), Kirschenbaum (cherry tree), Feigenbaum (fig tree), Olivenbaum (olive tree), Bloomenthal (valley of flowers), Weinblatt (vine leaf), Fox, Eagle, Fischer, Berg, etc. Tree names are very common locative Portuguese/Sephardic surnames –
Oliveira/
Olivera (olive tree),
Carvalho (
oak tree),
Servia (from
serba, i.e. a sort of
sorbus or serbal tree),
Pinheiro (
pine tree),
Pereira/Pereyra (
pear tree), Pêro/Pero (wild
apple tree),
Pereiro/
Do Pereyro (
apple tree),
Aciveiro (
holly tree),
Moreira (
mulberry tree),
Macedo/
Macieira (
apple tree),
Filgueira/
Figueira (fern tree or
cyatheales),
Loureiro/
Laureiro (
laurel tree). There is the case of
Pereira/
Pereyra which is a pear tree: in the old documentations of the Portuguese language also appears as a variant of Pedreira or Pedreiro and this means "stone quarry" or mason.
Religious surnames Surnames with
religious meanings or connotations are common. It is possible that some of these originated from an ancestor who converted to Catholicism and intended or needed to demonstrate his new faith. Another possible source of religious names were orphans who were abandoned in the churches and raised in Catholic orphanages by priests and nuns. They were usually baptized with a name related to the date near when they were found or baptized. Another possible source is when religious personal names (expressing a special devotion by the parents or the god-parents, or the child's birth date) were adopted as family names. Religious names includes
de Jesus (of Jesus),
dos Reis (of the kings, from the day of the Epiphany of the Lord, the Day of the Wise Kings),
Ramos (branches, from Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter),
Pascoal (of Easter),
da Assunção (of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary),
do Nascimento (of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary or the Nativity of Jesus – Christmas),
da Visitação (of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary),
da Anunciação (of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary),
da Conceição (of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary),
Trindade (from Trinity Sunday),
do Espírito Santo (of the Holy Ghost, from the Feast of the Holy Ghost),
das Chagas (of wounds, from the Feast of the Five Wounds of Christ),
Graça (grace, from Our Lady of Grace),
Patrocínio (patronage, from Our Lady of Patronage),
Paz (peace, from Our Lady Mediatrix of Peace),
Luz (light, from Our Lady of the Divine Light),
Neves (snows, from Our Lady of the Snows),
Penha (cliff, bluff, from Our Lady of the Bluff of France, that in Spanish is called Nuestra Señora de Peñafrancia),
das Dores (of sorrows, from Our Lady of Sorrows),
Bonfim (good end, from Our Lord of Good Death),
das Virgens (of the virgins martyrs),
dos Anjos (of angels, from the Archangels Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel day),
São João (Saint John),
Santana (Saint Ann),
Santos (from 'Todos os Santos', i.e. from All Hallows or All Saints day;
Santos comes from the Latin
sanctus, which also originated other variants, such as
Sanctius,
Santious,
Sancti,
Santis,
Santi,
Sante or
Santé,
Santiz,
Santiso or
Santizo and
Santotis) and
Cruz (Cross, the most common surname among the
Belmonte Jews). An orphan with unknown parents or a converted (
Jew, African slave, or
Native Brazilian) person was frequently baptized with the name of a saint, such as
João Baptista (from Saint John the Baptist),
João Evangelista (from Saint John the Evangelist),
João de Deus (from Saint John of God),
António de Pádua (from Saint Anthony of Padova),
João Nepomuceno (from Saint John of Nepomuk),
Francisco de Assis (from Saint Francis of Assisi),
Francisco de Paula (from Saint Francis of Paola),
Francisco de Salles (from Saint Francis de Salles),
Inácio de Loiola (from Saint Ignatius of Loyola),
Tomás Aquino (from Saint Thomas Aquinas),
José de Calazans (from Saint Joseph of Calasanz), or
José de Cupertino (from Saint Joseph of Cupertino). After that, they usually passed only the second personal name (
Batista, Evangelista, de Deus, Pádua, Nepomuceno, Assis, de Paula, Sales, Loiola, Aquino, Calazans or
Cupertino) to their sons as a surname. A surname such as
Xavier could have originated from someone baptized after Saint Francis Xavier or from the old Portuguese family
Xavier.
Descriptive surnames Some surnames are possible
descriptions of a peculiar characteristic of an ancestor, originating from nicknames. These include names like
Veloso (wooly or hairy),
Vergueiro (one that bends),
Medrado (grown-up),
Porciúncula (small part, small piece),
Magro (thin),
Magriço (skinny),
Gago (stutterer, stammerer),
Galhardo (gallant, chivalrous),
Terrível (terrible),
Penteado (hairdressing, the nickname of a branch of the German Werneck family whose members used to wear wigs),
Romeiro (a pilgrim)
Verdugo/Berdugo ("Tree branch" or 'Executioner").
Profession and occupation surnames Portuguese surnames that originated from
professions or
occupations are few, such as
Serrador (sawman),
Monteiro (hunter of the hills or woods guard),
Guerreiro (warrior),
Caldeira (cauldron, i.e. cauldron maker),
Cubas (wooden barrels, i.e., barrel maker or cooper),
Carneiro (sheep, for a shepherd),
Peixe (fish, for a fisherman or a fishmonger).
Foreign-origin surnames Some Portuguese names originated from foreigners who came to live in
Portugal or Brazil many centuries ago. They are so ancient that, despite their known foreign origin, they are an integrated part of Portuguese and Brazilian cultures. Most of these names are Spanish, such as
Toledo (a city in Spain),
Ávila or
Dávila (a city in Spain) and
Padilha. Other common "foreign" surnames are Bettencourt or Bittencourt (from
Béthencourt, French),
Goulart, Goulard or
Gullar (French, original meaning is glutton),
Fontenele or
Fontenelle (French, from fountain),
Rubim (from Robin, French),
Alencastro,
Lencastre (from Lancaster, English),
Drummond (Scottish),
Werneck, Vernek or
Berneque (southern German, the name of the
Bavarian city
Werneck),
Wanderley (from
van der Ley, Flemish),
Dutra (from
De Ultra, a Latin name meaning "from beyond" assumed by the Flemish family
Van Hurtere),
Brum (from
Bruyn, Flemish), Bulcão (from
Bulcamp, Flemish),
Dulmo (from
van Olm, Flemish),
Acioli (Italian),
Doria (Italian),
Cavalcanti (Italian),
Netto or
Neto (Italian, not to be confused with the name suffix "Neto" ("grandson") that is used in Portuguese to distinguish a grandson and grandfather who bear the same names).
The question of Portuguese Jewish surnames It is a popular belief that the
Jews living in Portugal up to 1497, when they were forced to choose between conversion or expulsion, substituted their surnames with the names of trees that do not bear edible fruits, such as
Carvalho (oak tree) and
Junqueira (reed, bulrush, junk). Others say that they usually chose animal
Leão (Lion); plant/vegetable
Pimentel (pepper); fruit such as
Figo (fig) and
Moreira (berry); and tree names such as
Pereira (pear tree) or
Oliveira (olive tree), in this case trees that bear edible fruits. However, even these names were already used by Christians during the Middle Ages; these surnames were mostly used by the converted Jews (
conversos, new Christians) during the time the Inquisition existed. Be that as it may, many of these surnames already belonged to members of Portugal's ancient Jewish population, which experts believe likely numbered around twenty-thousand. Many of the Sephardic Jews of Portugal simply transliterated the spellings of the names they already possessed, to align more closely with the Christian Portuguese surnames that were already commonly used in Portugal.This was done to deflect any suspicion that they were Jews. One good example is the Jewish tribe name Menasseh, which was transliterated and became the Portuguese surname "Meneses". Many Jewish names were modified in this fashion, and in time, they became bonafide Portuguese Christian surnames. Thus, by adopting these kinds of names of Jewish origin that became accepted Portuguese surnames, meant that in a very real sense, the Portuguese Jews actually ended up adopting surnames that were originally theirs to begin with. Another family name usually pointed out as denoting Jewish ancestry is
Espírito Santo (Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost) and Verdugo/Berdugo (Branch of a Tree / Executioner). The rationale is that Jews would adopt as a family name an (apparently) Christian concept as a deception. In fact, they were choosing the most incorporeal
Trinity person, that is, the one that offended least their (secret) Jewish faith. This theory is not totally unfounded, as there is evidence that the cult around the Holy Spirit flourished after 1496, especially among
New Christians. This does not rule out that "Espírito Santo" was also adopted by faithful Christians, following the rationale of other religious surnames. The Portuguese Jews living in Portugal up to 1497 bore personal names that could distinguish them from the Christian population. Most of these names are Portuguese versions of older Semitic (Arabian, Hebrew, Aramaic) names like
Abenazo, Abencobra/Cobra, Aboab, Abravanel, Albarrux, Azenha, Benafull, Benafaçom, Benazo, Caçez, Cachado, Çaçom/Saçom, Carraf, Carilho, Cide/Cid, Çoleima, Faquim, Faracho, Faravom, Fayham/Fayam, Focem, Çacam/Sacam, Famiz, Gadim, Gedelha, Labymda, Latam/Latão, Loquem, Lozora, Maalom, Maçon, Maconde, Mocatel, Mollaão, Montam, Motaal, Rondim, Rosall, Samaia/Çamaya, Sanamel, Saraya, Tarraz, Tavy/Tovy, Toby, Varmar, Verdugo/Berdugo, Zaaboca, Zabocas, Zaquim, Zaquem. Some were locative names, not necessarily specific to Jewish populations, like
Catelaão/Catalão (Catalan),
Castelão/Castelhão (Castilian),
Crescente (crescent, from Turkey),
Medina (from
Medina),
Romano,
Romão,
Romeiro (Roman),
Tolledam/
Toledano (from
Toledo),
Vallency (from
Valencia) and
Vascos (Basque); some were patronymics from Biblical names like
Abraão (Abraham),
Lázaro (Lazarus),
Barnabé (Barnabas),
Benjamim (Benjamin),
Gabril (Gabriel)
, Muça
(Moses), and
Natam (Nathan); some are profession names such as
Caldeirão (cauldron),
Martelo (hammer),
Pexeiro (fishmonger),
Chaveirol (locksmith), and
Prateiro (silversmith); some are nicknames such as
Calvo (bald),
Dourado (golden),
Ruivo (red-headed),
Crespo (curly),
Querido (beloved) and
Parente (family relative). A few names are not distinct from old Portuguese surnames, such as
Camarinha, Castro, Crespim. Some scholars proved that the converted Portuguese Jews usually chose a patronymic as their new surname and, when the conversion was not forced, they would choose to bear the surname of their godfather. and the classical economist
David Ricardo. Other famous members of the Portuguese Synagogue of Amsterdam bore names such as
Uriel da Costa (
Uriel Acosta), Abraham Pimentel,
Isaac Aboab da Fonseca,
Isaac de Pinto and
Menasseh ben Israel (whose original surname was
Soeiro). The
Belmonte Jews (crypto-Jews from the
Belmonte region in Portugal) also bear surnames that cannot be used to distinguish them from the older Catholic Portuguese families. Using tree names as surnames was not a common practice among converted or non-converted Portuguese Jews, before or after their
expulsion in 1497. == Frequency ==