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Portuguese surnames, or the conventional formation of first names and family names in countries and communities of Portuguese language have some peculiarities. Silva is the most common Portuguese surname.
- 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 first name and the father's family surname
- José Eduardo Silva: José Eduardo is the first 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 Tavares Silva: in this case the mother's family name has been added. Another possibility would be that Tavares 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., Tavares-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 Brazil and in males only, the complete name, if it repeats the name of a relative, e.g., father, grandfather or uncle, may be suffixed by: Júnior (abbreviated Jr.), Filho (meaning son), Neto (grandson) or Sobrinho (nephew), always written with initial upper case and without a separating comma. Bisneto (great-grandson) is very unusual, but it is nothing against its use. Other relations of kin are not used. This convention doesn't apply to names of females. Using Roman numerals, such as I, II, III, etc., is not used in Portuguese;
- Prepositions that can be used in Portuguese surnames are da, das, do, dos and de, such as in Luís de Sousa, Maria da Conceição, Osvaldo dos Santos, Luísa das Neves, etc. and mean "from" or "of". Actually, only de is a preposition: da, dos, etc. are contractions of the preposition de and a definite article (o, as, etc.), therefore meaning "from the" or "of the". Convention requires that they are written in lower case. Differently from Italian surnames, these conjunctives are usually not part of a composite name (i.e., "Sousa" is not different from "de Sousa".
Middle names can be abbreviated, as well as suffixes, but never the first name and the surname. Example: José E. C. Lima Jr. This differs from rules in Spanish names, which use the mother's family name at the end. Example: Norberto Garcia C.
Alphabetising
When producing alphabetised lists of Portuguese names, the last 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 committed 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, Luís Pereira Siqueira
- Sousa, Luís de
Note, however, that these rules may change if the Portuguese name has been absorbed into a different culture, like in Anglo-Saxon countries. In the United States, for example, where many Portuguese immigrants established themselves since the 18th century around New Jersey and New Hampshire, alphabetising rules use "da" and "de" as part of the surname (the famous Portuguese-American author John Dos Passos, who is referred as having the Dos Passos surname, is a good example).
Origin of names
Portuguese surnames have several origins, according to the history of occupation and immigration of Portugal's territory. Among the most common are 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 were many times adopted by marranos, i.e., christianized Jews in the Middle Ages. One possible exception among these is Silveira, which was used as a Portuguese translation of the Flemish surname Haagen, among immigrants to the Azores. 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, Tavares- 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 (blacksmith).
See also
- List of most common surnames (See Brazil and Portugal)
- List of Portuguese given names