Naming Traditions (Part II): Surname Types

by Doug da Rocha Holmes
Copyright © 1996



Part II of this 3-part article was about Portuguese personal names. Part II is about surname types. What is the most baffling to people is the method of surname selection and will be the subject of part III.

The history of names in Spain pre-dates that of Portugal. So, it follows that there are identical traditions and later variations of usage and spelling.

Patronymics (Surnames from the father's given name)

In documents as early as the ninth century, we find people being referred to by their given names and as the son of someone, such as Nuno, son of Pero, or Fernão, son of Telo. So, a patronymic name comes from a male ancestor and is the earliest form of surname. The addition of the letters "es" (with various other changes) converts a given name into a surname. An example is the name Vasques from Vasco. This example can be better understood knowing that the old spelling of Vasco is Vasquo. Vasco is also the origin of the surname Vaz. Other examples are Álvaro to Álvares, Diogo to Dias, Fernando to Fernandes, Gonçalo to Gonçalves, Henrique to Henriques, Lopo to Lopes, Marcos to Marques, Martim to Martins, Mendo to Mendes, Nuno to Nunes, Paio to Pais, Rodriguo (the old spelling) to Rodrigues, Simão to Simões, Soeiro to Soares, and Telo to Teles. So, we find Nuno, son of Pero, listed as Nuno Peres (or Pires); Fernão, son of Telo, listed as Fernão Teles, etc.

It should be known that the Spanish add "ez", so instead of Nunes, they write Nunez; the given name Alfonso becomes Alfonsez; Ordoño becomes Ordoñez, etc. So when names of royal Spanish and lessor noble ancestors of Portuguese branches are written, they might be written with Portuguese spellings when actually these people would have used Spanish spellings.

By the tenth and eleventh centuries, patronynic names are being handed down in each generation. They have now become the family name in the way we use them today.

Toponymics (Surnames indicating a location)

By the twelfth century, the noble classes are using a location to help identify people. This gives us names such as "de Sousa"; "de Macedo" (from the vila de Macedo-de-Cavaleiros); "de Lima" (from the terra de Limia, Galicia, Spain); "de Lemos" (a location dating to the third century); "Castelo Branco" (a city in Portugal); "Noronha" (a location in Castile, Spain); "Abreu" (from Evreaux, France); "de Ávila" (from Ávila, Spain); "de Bettencourt" (Bethancourt is a former location in Picardy, France); "de Matos" (a quinta, rural residence, near Lamego, Portugal); "de Oliveira" (from a place called Paço de Oliveira in the parish of Santa Maria de Oliveira near Arcos de Valdevez, Portugal); Pereira was the name of a quinta (possibly where pear trees grew) and this name was used by the Counts of Feira, Portugal, including D.Nuno Álvares Pereira; "de Serpa" (a location near Beja, in Southern Portugal); Teixeira is a location in Portugal and the surname was used in the 12th century by D.Hermígio Mendes de Teixeira ; Vasconcelos was a location in Portugal and was adopted as a name by João Pires de Vasconcelos who lived in the 13th century; Vieira comes from Vieira do Minho, a place near Braga, Portugal. Another name is Sampaio which comes from São Payo, a location in Trás-os- Montes, Portugal, but the location itself was named in honor of a saint.

A variation of this type of name is when ownership of property is involved. A person from the Machado family may hold the title "Duke of Braganza" or some such place granted by the king because of loyalty or heroic deeds. Machado may even be dropped for just "de Braganza." Other than King and Queen, the first title of nobility in Portugal was granted in 1298 to João Afonso Teles de Menezes as "Conde de Barcelos." A few other titles are "Conde da Cunha," "Barão de Alvito," "Marquês de São Payo," "Duque de Coimbra," and "Conde de Neiva."

Nicknames (Alcunhas)

Nicknames can replace a family name such as Joaquim das Neves being known as Joaquim Bicho or Joana de Melo Mulato or the like. Eventually, the original name can be forgotten as in the case of the surname Caralta, a name found on Pico. Historian James Guill informs me the original alcunha was Cara-alta (Long Face) which was shortened to Caralta and corrupted to Carauta. Most no longer know their family name was Pereira de Lacerda. This also demonstrates that an alcunha can be passed down generation after generation.

Nickname examples are Leal, Machado, Furtado (attributed to Fernão Peres de Lara o Furtado, of Castile, Spain), Lacerda (from D.Fernando de La Cerda, son of King Afonso X of Castile, Spain), Neto (indicating the grandson of someone), Pimentel (from D.Vasco de Martins o Pimentel, a nobleman who lived in the 13th century from Novais, Portugal); Velho (indicating the father with the same name as a son).

An interesting example is the surname Melo. Its origin is from both a nickname and a location. The nickname is attributed to D.Soeiro Reimondes o Merlo (or melro) who established the village of Merlo, later known as Melo, in Beira, Portugal.

To quote from the book Portuguese Pioneers of the Sacramento Area, "Nicknames may allude to conditions of life, social position, occupations, physical or moral qualities, compared with animals, plants and minerals; referring to foods, drink, clothing, habits, magical and religious ideas; tools, numbers, money; made up of a word or phrase in Portuguese or foreign language." Some alcunhas may be too old to be defined anymore since words and meanings always change over time.

Descriptive Surnames

Names in this category can also fit into other categories. Someone loyal might be called "Leal". Someone with dark skin may be called "Negro." Someone with mixed ancestry could be called "Mulato." Someone with German or Flemish ancestry may be called "Alemão." Francisco da Silva Senior may be known as Francisco da Silva Velho. A fat man could be "Redondo."

Surnames based on Occupation

A person's occupation could evolve into the family name. A carpenter may become Carpinteiro; a blacksmith would be Ferreira; a bootmaker would be Sapateiro. Some names are animals and could be related to a person's occupation such as Peixoto (peixe = fish), Bezerra (calf). The first Senhor Peixoto may have been a fisherman. The first Senhor Bezerra could have raised cattle.

Transliteration (Spelling a surname as if it were Portuguese)

Other names are introduced to Portugal by foreigners and their names are altered. Rodovalho comes from a noble family named Rodoval from Normandy, France; Sodré is from John de Sudeley of England; Sarmento is from a Spanish family named Sarmiento; Payne was changed to Paím after the name entered Portugal from England in the person of Thomas Allen Payne, advisor to Queen Phillipa of Lancaster; Dutra is from d'Utra and came to Faial by Josse van Hurtere, a nobleman of the house of princess D.Isabel, Duchess of Burgundy. An English soldier under the command of Wellington came to Portugal in 1806. His occupation was master shoemaker and his descendants used the name "Chumaco".

The American version of transliteration comes from the Portuguese immigrants. Just about anyone of Portuguese descent knows people named Perry or Silver. The process of transliteration started with the desire to blend in or maybe to avoid the nuisance of having the surname mispronounced by everyone. So the names Pereira and Pires would sound close to Perry, an English name; just a bit shortened. People with the surname Silveira or Silva both used Silver. Rodrigues was changed to Rodgers; the Brum family is now known as the Brown family; Coelho to Quail; Homem to Holmes; Inácio to Enos; Correia to Corey; Lourenço to Lawrence; Mello to Mellow (Cheri's note: I've never seen that, but have seen Mello to Miller); Soares to Sears; Tomas to Thomas; Valim to Valine (Valim was itself transliterated from the Venetian name Valimi).

Translated Surnames

Surnames can also be straight translations from another language. One of the most notable examples from the Azores is Willem van der Hagen. Hagen means "brambles or thicket" in Flemish. So he changed his surname to Silveira, which means the same thing in Portuguese. Another Flemish name was "van Aard" which was translated to "da Terra" and they both mean "earth".

Some common examples are from Spanish to Portuguese which gives us names such as Diego to Diogo; Alfonso to Afonso; Joaquin to Joaquim; Juan to João; Fernando to Fernão; Rivera to Ribeira; Gonzales to Gonçalves.

Name translation was done frequently by the Portuguese immigrants. Ferreira may become Smith; Neves becomes Snow; Cunha is translated to Wedge. The book Portuguese Immigrants, by Almeida, gives a list of these changes.

Religious Surnames

Some people mistakenly think a woman's religious name is her surname. If one sees a listing for Anna Maria dos Anjos, it doesn't mean Anjos is her surname. She just doesn't use a surname (at least in the written records). The same mistake can be made for women using a name such as Maria Rosa. Rosa can be a surname or a given name, but in this case it's a given name. To be a surname, it has to have "da" as in Maria da Rosa.

On the other hand, sometimes a religious name becomes the adopted surname. The person may be devoted to a particular saint such as Saint Anthony and start to use the name José Machado Santo António. Men and women entering religious service such as the priesthood or a convent sometimes change their surname to a religious one. The Azorean priest and noted genealogist, Diogo das Chagas, was once known as Diogo Coelho da Costa and was a native of Santa Cruz das Flores, born about 1592. The 3-volume work, Nobiliario da Ilha Terceira, has numerous examples of children of noble families entering convents and using religious names instead the family name. A quick look through the Madeira phone book shows men and women alike with the surnames: dos Anjos, Baptista, do Carmo, de Jesus, Livramento, dos Ramos, dos Reis, dos Santos, etc.

Spelling Variations

Like personal names, there were old spelling methods for family names. Silveira was Sylveira or Sylveyra; Pereira was Pereyra; Homem was Homé; Sodré was Xodre; Machado and Rocha were sometimes Maxado and Roxa; Coadros instead of Quadros; Serpa was Cerpa; Gonsalves instead of Gonçalves; Garçia instead of Garcia; Gularte instead of Goulart; d'Areia is altered to d'Area or d'Arêa. Names now ending in ão ended in am such as Jordão/Jordam and Alemão/Alemam.

There's also the tendency to alter the spelling order for names. Examples are Garcia changing to Gracia, Castro changing to Crasto, and Bracellos instead of Barcellos. Other variations are Gomes becoming Guomes or Gomez, Fonseca is spelled Foncequa, Fraga becomes Fragua, Camacho turns to Camaxo, Pacheco is Pachequo or Paxeco. And the use of "z" changed to "s" for many names like Sousa/Souza, Rosa/Roza, etc. So, when people emigrated to America 100 years ago, they kept the older spelling method. This accounts for finding both new and old versions such as Meneses/Menezes, Melo/Mello, Matos/Mattos, Leal/Lial, Silva/Sylva, Sousa/Souza, in the U.S. now.

Many wonder about the use of de, da, do, das, dos and d' with surnames. A quick grammar lesson is that they are prepositions used with surnames based on location and are masculine or feminine forms which mean "of" in either singular or plural forms. For instance, "da" is a contraction of "de a" (the Spanish equivalent is "de la"), and is the feminine singular used with Areia, Câmara, Costa, Cruz, Cunha, Fonseca, Fonte, Fraga, Maia, Noia, Rocha, Rosa, Silva, Silveira, or Terra. The masculine singular "do" is a contraction of "de o" and not so common but is used with the names Amaral, Carmo, Nascimento, and Porto. The preposition "de" is the most common and is used with the names Águiar, Andrade, Ávila, Azevedo, Bairos, Bem, Bettencourt, Brum, Faria, Freitas, Gois, Lima, Luna, Matos, Medeiros, Mello, Menezes, Mesquita, Oliveira, Quadros, Sá, Serpa, Simas, Sousa, Utra, Valença. The preposition "das" is a contraction of "de as" and is the feminine plural form and used with the name Neves. The contraction of the masculine plural "de os" results in "dos" and is used in the name Santos, Ramos, Anjos, etc. A variation of "da" and "de" is another contraction, d', and is sometimes used with the names Abreu, Águiar, Areia, Ávila, Azevedo, Oliveira, and when it's pronounced, it sounds as if it were all one, such as "Davila" or "Doliveira".

These prepositions before surnames are not always used and are not so important. One could write the name "Miguel da Silveira de Azevedo", or "Miguel Silveira Azevedo" and it doesn't really matter that the prepositions are missing. They are always left out in telephone books.

Sources: Dicionário das Famílias Portuguesas, 1989, by D.Luiz de Lancastre e Tavora; A History of the Azores Islands, 1993, by James H. Guill.

This article originally appeared in the December 1995 issue of O Progresso, the quarterly newsletter of the Portuguese Historical & Cultural Society. Copyright © 1996 by Doug da Rocha Holmes. Reprinted with the author's permission.

You can reach Doug at: Email: Rocha@dholmes.com. Website: http://www.dholmes.com

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