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| ## ''José Eduardo Monteiro Silva'': in this case the mother's family name has been added. Another possibility would be that Monteiro Silva is a composite family name on the father's side, this is relatively common in Portuguese surnames, i.e., both names are carried down to all descendants; again there is no way of knowing this. Hyphenated names are rare in Portuguese (i.e., Monteiro-Silva, a convention which would dispel the confusion: sometimes is artificially forced by authors, politicians, etc., who want to be correctly cited in other countries. Example: Cavaco-Silva, one of Portugal's presidents) | ## ''José Eduardo Monteiro Silva'': in this case the mother's family name has been added. Another possibility would be that Monteiro Silva is a composite family name on the father's side, this is relatively common in Portuguese surnames, i.e., both names are carried down to all descendants; again there is no way of knowing this. Hyphenated names are rare in Portuguese (i.e., Monteiro-Silva, a convention which would dispel the confusion: sometimes is artificially forced by authors, politicians, etc., who want to be correctly cited in other countries. Example: Cavaco-Silva, one of Portugal's presidents) | ||
| # In males only, the complete name, if it repeats the name of a relative, e.g., father, grandfather or uncle, may be appended by: '''Júnior''' (abbreviated Jr.), '''Filho''' (meaning ''son''), '''Neto''' (''grandson'') or '''Sobrinho''' (''nephew''), always written with initial upper case and without a separating comma. '''Bisneto''' (''grand-grandson'') is very unusual, but it is nothing against its use. Other relations of kin are not used. This convention do not apply to names of females. | # In males only, the complete name, if it repeats the name of a relative, e.g., father, grandfather or uncle, may be appended by: '''Júnior''' (abbreviated Jr.), '''Filho''' (meaning ''son''), '''Neto''' (''grandson'') or '''Sobrinho''' (''nephew''), always written with initial upper case and without a separating comma. '''Bisneto''' (''grand-grandson'') is very unusual, but it is nothing against its use. Other relations of kin are not used. This convention do not apply to names of females. | ||
| ## Conjunctives that can be used in Portuguese surnames are "da" and "de", such as in Luiz de Souza, Maria da Conceição, and mean "from" or "of". However, differently from Spanish and Italian surnames, these conjunctives are usually not part of a composite name (i.e., "Souza" are not different of "de Souza" | |||
| ==Alphabetising== | |||
| When producing alphabetised lists of Portuguese names, the father's family name is chosen as the key. The conjunctives and affixes preceding or following it, such as "da" and "Filho", should not be used. When a composite surname is known, it is alphabetised according to the first name, even if it is not separated by a hyphen. When it is not known, the last name should be used (because of this many errors are commited in the alphabetisation of Portuguese surnames, such as in a telephone directory). For example: | |||
| * Chagas Filho, Carlos | |||
| * Siqueira Campos, Luis Pereira; or it could be also: | |||
| * Campos, Luiz Pereira Siqueira | |||
| * Souza, Luiz de | |||
| ==Origin of names== | ==Origin of names== | ||
Revision as of 00:17, 14 February 2006
Portuguese surnames, or the conventional formation of first names and family names in countries and communities of Portuguese language have some peculiarities:
- Complete names are formed as it is generally practiced in Western Europe, i.e., by first names, followed optionally by one or more middle names, followed (also optionally) by the mother's family surname, followed by the father's family surname. Examples:
- José Silva: the simplest configuration, with a single given name and the father's family surname
- José Eduardo Silva: José Eduardo is the given name and Silva the father's family name (however, note that Eduardo may be a valid mother's family name: there is no way of knowing just by looking at the name)
- José Eduardo Monteiro Silva: in this case the mother's family name has been added. Another possibility would be that Monteiro Silva is a composite family name on the father's side, this is relatively common in Portuguese surnames, i.e., both names are carried down to all descendants; again there is no way of knowing this. Hyphenated names are rare in Portuguese (i.e., Monteiro-Silva, a convention which would dispel the confusion: sometimes is artificially forced by authors, politicians, etc., who want to be correctly cited in other countries. Example: Cavaco-Silva, one of Portugal's presidents)
- In males only, the complete name, if it repeats the name of a relative, e.g., father, grandfather or uncle, may be appended by: Júnior (abbreviated Jr.), Filho (meaning son), Neto (grandson) or Sobrinho (nephew), always written with initial upper case and without a separating comma. Bisneto (grand-grandson) is very unusual, but it is nothing against its use. Other relations of kin are not used. This convention do not apply to names of females.
- Conjunctives that can be used in Portuguese surnames are "da" and "de", such as in Luiz de Souza, Maria da Conceição, and mean "from" or "of". However, differently from Spanish and Italian surnames, these conjunctives are usually not part of a composite name (i.e., "Souza" are not different of "de Souza"
Alphabetising
When producing alphabetised lists of Portuguese names, the father's family name is chosen as the key. The conjunctives and affixes preceding or following it, such as "da" and "Filho", should not be used. When a composite surname is known, it is alphabetised according to the first name, even if it is not separated by a hyphen. When it is not known, the last name should be used (because of this many errors are commited in the alphabetisation of Portuguese surnames, such as in a telephone directory). For example:
- Chagas Filho, Carlos
- Siqueira Campos, Luis Pereira; or it could be also:
- Campos, Luiz Pereira Siqueira
- Souza, Luiz de
Origin of names
Portuguese surnames have several origins, according to the history of occupation and immigration of Portugal's territory. One of the most common is names of animals and plants, such as Carneiro (mutton), Leão (lion), Silveira (a kind of bush), Oliveira (olive tree), Macieira (apple tree), Pereira (pear tree), etc. It is generally agreed that these are surnames invented and adopted by marranos, i.e., christianized Jews in the Middle Ages. Note, however, that these names are not Jewish in origin and are not a sign of Jewish ancestry per se.
When someone's surname was unknown, not verifiable or considered unpronounceable in Portuguese language, his or her surname was usually registered as "da Costa" when living near the sea coast or "da Silva" (from the forest) if lived inland. The surname "dos Santos" (from the saints) was given to orphan children. This explains why these names (da Costa, da Silva, dos Santos) are so common and why, although the high degree of miscegenation in Brazil and the Portuguese-speaking countries in Africa and Asia, between Portuguese, African, Asian or local Indigenous people, Portuguese names are so common. Other common surnames of Portuguese origin, such as Pires, Rodrigues, Lopes, Mendes, Fernandes - notice that they end with -es, not -ez as in Spanish, are also still very common both in Portugal and Brazil.
Other surnames are originated from the professions, such as Ferreira (smith).