Portuguese name


A Portuguese name is typically composed of one or two given names, and a number of family names. The first additional names are usually the mother's family surname and the father's family surname. For practicality, usually only the last surname is used in formal greetings.

General

The Portuguese naming system is quite flexible. Portuguese law establishes the need for a child to have at least one given name and one last name from one of the parents. The law also establishes the maximum number of names allowed: up to two given names and four surnames. This restriction is generally not enforced and it is not uncommon to have more than four surnames.
Usually, the maternal surnames precede the paternal ones, but the opposite is also possible. If the father is unknown, or he has not acknowledged the child, only the mother's family name is/are used. A child can receive surnames from their parents' ancestors, even if those surnames are not part of the parents' names, provided that the parents prove those names were used by their ancestors.
Some Portuguese family names are made of two words, most often not hyphenated, but are not composite names, as they were not the result of combining two family names in past generations; instead, the words constitute a single logical unit. These include toponyms, religious references, or other expressions. In this case both words must be cited.

Number of names

It is not uncommon in Portugal that a married woman has two given names and six surnames, two from her mother's family, two from her father's family, and the last two coming from her husband. In addition, some of these names may be made of more than one word, so that a full feminine name can have more than 12 words. For instance, the name "Maria do Carmo Mão de Ferro e Cunha de Almeida Santa Rita Santos Abreu" would not be surprising in a married woman. Mão de Ferro and Santa Rita count only as one surname each. In this case, Santos Abreu would probably have come from this woman's husband.
In Portugal, the custom of giving a child four last names is becoming popular, since this way a child can have each of their grandparents' last names. In Portugal and Brazil, some people view this as a sign of snobbery, since it used to be the noble families who had a large number of given names. For instance, the Emperor Pedro I of Brazil had the full name of Pedro de Alcântara Francisco Antônio João Carlos Xavier de Paula Miguel Rafael Joaquim José Gonzaga Pascoal Cipriano Serafim de Bourbon e Bragança, and his son, the Emperor Pedro II of Brazil, had the full name of Pedro de Alcântara João Carlos Leopoldo Salvador Bibiano Francisco Xavier de Paula Leocádio Miguel Gabriel Rafael Gonzaga de Habsburgo-Lorena e Bragança. For the sake of simplicity, most Portuguese people use only two surnames.
For example, if José Santos Almeida and Maria Abreu Melo had a daughter, her name could simply be Joana Melo Almeida. However, they could give her two given names, for example Joana Gabriela, and combine their surnames in various ways, such has Joana Gabriela Melo Almeida, Joana Gabriela Abreu Melo Almeida, Joana Gabriela Abreu Santos Almeida, or even Joana Gabriela Abreu Melo Santos Almeida. It would also be possible to use surnames that are not part of either parent's legal name, but which the parents would be entitled to use, i.e., a surname from a grandparent or a great-grandparent that was not transmitted to the father or the mother. This child would probably become known by her final surname, Joana Almeida. However, her parents could decide to change the order of surnames and name her Joana Almeida Melo, etc. In this case she would probably be known as Joana Melo.
In Portugal, having only one surname is rare, and it usually happens when both the parents have the same last name, to avoid repetitive combinations such as António Santos Santos. In Brazil, having only one surname is common in areas with large communities of non-Portuguese immigrants.

Spelling

Portuguese names have a standard spelling, since names are considered as regular nouns, and are thus subject to the orthographical rules of the Portuguese language. The spelling of many names has evolved through times and with orthography reforms; at the same time, archaic forms of names survive, though they are considered misspellings by current spelling rules. The Acordo Ortográfico, valid in Brazil and Portugal, states on Section XI : Os nomes próprios personativos, locativos e de qualquer natureza, sendo portugueses ou aportuguesados, serão sujeitos às mesmas regras estabelecidas para os nomes comuns..
In Portugal, given names have a standard spelling that is considered the norm and the rules are enforced by law. The 'Instituto dos Registos e do Notariado', under the jurisdiction of the Portuguese Republic, has rules about given names. There is a defined list of allowed names; misspelt and archaic forms, and names containing foreign letters – k, y, w – are usually not allowed. However, older people who were registered with archaic forms have continued to use them. Regarding surnames, there are no legal restrictions, and as such many people continue to use archaic spellings of family names, as in Athayde, Telles.
In Brazil, there are no laws concerning names, and only obscene or ridiculous names are forbidden when parents report the birth of a child to the local cartório de registro civil. Many archaic spellings coexist with the orthographically correct, and even with fancy orthographies. Names of international inspiration are common, bringing with them the unusual characters "k", "w", and "y", diacritics that do not match the Brazilian pronunciation or do not exist in Portuguese, double letters that retain their foreign pronunciation or not, silent letters, and letters that are intended to sound differently from the orthographic norms. Parents can make up any type of name, and suffixes with an English or French "flavour" are often used to give foreign allure to their offspring's names, such as "-son" for boys and "-elly" for girls. This phenomenon can be easily seen in Brazilian football players' names.
Names of deceased historical figures must be spelled following the current orthographic rules: Luís de Camões, Venceslau Brás, Euclides da Cunha, Tomás Antônio Gonzaga etc.

The particle 'de'

that can be used in Portuguese surnames are da, das, do, dos and de, such as in Maria da Cunha, José das Neves, Joana do Rosário, Luís dos Santos, Gabriela de Sousa, etc. and mean "from" or "of." Da, dos, etc. are contractions of the preposition de and a definite article, meaning "from the" or "of the." The current convention in Portuguese is that they be written in lower case. Different from in Italian surnames, these conjunctives are usually not part of a composite name, i.e., "Sousa" is not different from "de Sousa," and both are ordered under 'S' in an alphabetical list. Therefore, one should not refer to Luiz Pereira da Silva as Mr. Da Silva but rather Mr. Silva. The conjunction "e" is also common, e.g. "Maria Costa e Silva." Most commonly this would be a composite surname; in this case the person should be addressed as "Ms. Costa e Silva", and not as Ms. Silva.
The most well-known exception to this norm is Angolan president José Eduardo dos Santos, who is frequently referred to as President Dos Santos, even among Portuguese-speaking people and in Portuguese-language media. Likewise, the Anglophone media often ignores this rule when referring to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as Mr. Da Silva, instead of the appropriate Mr. Silva, while he is mostly called Lula in Portuguese-speaking media.

The name 'Maria'

The given name Maria is extremely common as a feminine given name and even combined with masculine names. In Portugal, it has always been common. Since the turn of the 21st century, a new wave of traditional given names has resulted in an increase in its popularity. In 2014, it was the most common girl's name in Portugal, more than twice the second-rated Matilde.
Traditionally Maria is more common as the first part of a double first name combination; these may be formed by several different elements.
Religious predicates :
Other types of combinations:
Many names that are etymologically related to Maria are also used. The most common is the name Mariana, a contraction of Maria and Ana. Other international agglutinations of Maria combinations have been introduced in more recent times. These include Marisa, Marlene, Marília and Míriam.
As Maria is so widely used, women are most likely to be addressed by just the second element of their name: Conceição, Dores, Céu, Luz, Lurdes, Fátima, Salete, Aparecida, Madalena, Antónia, Teresa, Glória, Prazeres etc. A woman named Maria de Jesus would be addressed as Jesus, even though the second name is masculine.
A similar thing happens with the name Ana, also very common in double-name combinations such as Ana Paula and Ana Carolina, especially in the younger generations. A woman called Ana Paula would be usually called 'Paula', Ana Carolina would be 'Carolina' and so on.
A similar procedure occurs with masculine names, but using a reverse order. It is not unusual to find masculine names such as João Maria, José Maria, Manuel Maria, Luís Maria etc. In this case, Maria would always be the second given name, in honour of the Virgin Mary, and the first name would be a masculine name. This custom was fashionable among the Portuguese and Brazilian nobility and the upper classes.

Surname and marriage

The custom of a woman adopting a different surname through marriage is not a Portuguese-Brazilian tradition. It spread in the late 19th century in the upper classes, under French influence. After the 1940s, it became almost socially obligatory. Not doing so was seen as evidence of concubinage, particularly until the 1970s. There is no longer a distinct pattern, with men and women being allowed to choose whether to change or not their surname.
In Portugal, a person may adopt their spouse's surname, but each always keeps the original birth surnames. For example, if Maria Abreu Melo marries José Santos Almeida, she could choose to become Maria Abreu Melo Almeida or Maria Abreu Melo Santos Almeida.
In Brazil, a woman may adopt her husband's surname and choose to keep or exclude her birth names. For example, when Maria Abreu Melo marries José Santos Almeida, she could choose to become Maria Abreu Melo Almeida, Maria Abreu Melo Santos Almeida, Maria Santos Almeida, Maria Almeida, etc. Usually, in these cases, a woman keeps part of her birth name and uses part of her husband's surname, in order to avoid having long names. So, the most used combination from the above example would be Maria Melo Almeida.
The mandatory adoption of the new name led to unusual combinations, as in the case of both spouses having the same surname, when the woman's surname was kept. Another confusing situation was, for example when a woman named Ana Lima Silva married a man named João Lima, her name could legally become Ana Lima Silva Lima.
In Portugal since 1977, and in Brazil since the 1970s, a woman has the option of whether or not to change her name after marriage. In Portugal, since 1977, and in Brazil, since 2002, a husband can also adopt his wife's surname. In Portugal, when this happens, usually both spouses change their name after marriage. In Brazil, there is not yet a perceived pattern.
In 2012, a circuit of the Superior Court of Justice in Brazil allowed a woman to adopt her male partner's surname while in a civil union.

Collation

When producing alphabetized lists of Portuguese names, generally the full name is used. This occurs mainly in schools or official documents, and it is usually done because many people prefer to use multiple surname combinations in their daily life, or do not use the last surname at all. It is therefore difficult to order people by the surnames they use. A typical alphabetized list:
However, in areas such as a telephone directory or bibliography, the practice of using the surname is preferred:
The conjunctives and affixes preceding or following it, such as "da" and "Filho", are not used. When a full composite surname is known, it is alphabetized according to the first name even if 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 alphabetization of Portuguese surnames, such as in a telephone directory. For example:
These rules may change if the Portuguese name has been absorbed into a different culture, as in English-speaking countries. In the United States, for example, where many Portuguese have emigrated since the 18th century to Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, California, Hawaii, New Jersey and New Hampshire, alphabetising rules use "da" and "de" as part of the surname. The Portuguese-American author John Dos Passos, who is referred to as having the surname Dos Passos, is a good example.

Nicknames

Portuguese nicknames are usually formed by inserting the diminutive infix -inh or -it before the final vowel in the name. For example, Teresa becomes Teresinha, and Carlos becomes Carlinhos. In some cases, a nickname is formed by adding zinho or -zito – to the actual name. For example, João becomes Joãozinho or Sofia becomes Sofiazinha.
Augmentative suffixes may be used as well, with "Marcos" becoming "Marcão", for example.
Other practices include the repetition of a syllable, a simple shortening of the name, the contraction of the name, or of a fraction of it. A mix of shortening and adding a suffix may also occur. Sometimes, a foreign-language nickname is used for the corresponding Portuguese name. Most given names have one or more standard diminutives.
Some typical Portuguese hypocoristics :
Other hypocoristics are associated with common two name combinations:
A hypocoristics can receive the suffix -inho/-inha giving a more intense feeling of protection or intimacy, such as Chiquinho, Xandinho, Zequinha.

Brazilian-specific patterns

Children of immigrants

In Brazil, recent immigrants – especially Italians, Germans, Jews and Japanese – usually give their sons only the father's family surname. Although there is no legal restriction on this practice, the pattern in succeeding generations changes to the traditional Portuguese pattern, usually because of assimilation.
Today one can find people who use two Italian surnames or two Japanese surnames, a practice that is unusual in Italy and nonexistent in Japan. Having two surnames from different non-Portuguese origin is also not uncommon, such as the Brazilian celebrity "Sabrina Sato Rahal", a Japanese and an Arab surname, respectively. Particularly common are German-Italian combinations, especially in Rio Grande do Sul.
The Spanish pattern is in many ways similar, but the father's surname usually precedes the mother's, unlike Portuguese usage. Almost all of the first Spanish-Brazilian born generation were named in order of the family surnames of the Portuguese pattern.

São Paulo State area

A specific pattern developed among the descendants of 20th-century immigrants: they use only their father's surname and two given names, the first is a Portuguese given name and the second one is a given name from their father's original country.
This pattern is most used among Japanese and Syrian-Lebanese immigrants sons and grandsons. So one can find names like "Paulo Salim Maluf" where Paulo is a Portuguese given name, Salim is an Arabian given name, and Maluf is his father's surname; or "Maria Heiko Sugahara" where Maria is a Portuguese given name, Heiko a Japanese given name and Sugahara is her father's surname. This practice allows the person to be recognized as "Paulo Maluf" or "Maria Sugahara" or as "Salim Maluf" or "Heiko Sugahara".
This pattern used to be quite common in São Paulo. Intermarriage has reduced this practice, but it is commonly used when both father and mother belong to the same ethnicity. Younger generations tend to use both the father's and the mother's family name, thus giving four names to their sons.

Origin of Portuguese surnames

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, Lusitanian, Iberian or Conii. 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, nomen and cognomen.
Most Portuguese surnames have a patronymical, locative or religious origin.

Surnames originating from patronymics

Patronymics are names derived from the father's given 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, Arantes, Esteves and Álvares, where the ending -es- means.
Some surnames that originated in this way do not end in es; instead they end in iz, like Muniz and Ruiz,, or ins, like Martins.
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 given names, such as Joana Fernando, or André João, in which "Fernando" and "João" are surnames, not given names. 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 given names, although they were passed from parents to sons for generations, such as Valentim, Alexandre, Fernando, Afonso and Antonio. Names like Dinis, Duarte, Garcia and Godinho were originally given names, but today they are used in Brazil almost exclusively as surnames, although Duarte and Dinis are still common given names in Portugal.
Matronymics are not used in Portuguese. Surnames such as "Catarino" and "Mariano" are rather references to Catholic saints.
Some former patronymics are not easily recognized, for two main reasons. Sometimes the given name that was the basis of the patronymic became archaic, such as Lopo, Mendo or Mem, Vasco, Soeiro, Munio, Sancho. Also, often the given names or the related patronymic changed through centuries, although always some resemblance can still be noted – such as Antunes, Peres, Alves, and Eanes.

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 , Castelo Branco, Cintra, Coimbra, Faria, Gouveia, Guimarães, Lima, Lisboa, Maia, Pacheco, Porto, Portugal, Serpa, Leão.
Some names specify a location of the family's house within the village: Fonte, Fontoira/Fontoura, Azenha, Eira, Tanque, Fundo, Cimo/Cima, Cabo, Cabral. 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, Rocha, Souza/Sousa, Vale, Bierzo, Ribeiro/Rivero, Siqueira/Sequeira, Castro, Dantas, Costa, Pedreira, Barreira, Couto, Outeiro,Vilar/Villar, Seixas/Seijas, Veiga/Vega, Cordoba/Cordova, Padron, Celanova.
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, Campos, Teixeira, Queirós, Cardoso, Correia, Macedo, and Azevedo fit this pattern.
Tree names are very common locative surnames – Oliveira/Olivera, Carvalho, Servia, Pinheiro, Pereira/Pereyra, Pêro/Pero, Pereiro/Do Pereyro, Aciveiro, Moreira, Macedo/Macieira, Filgueira/Figueira, Loureiro/Laureiro, Parreira. There is the case of Pereira/Pereyra which is not only a tree. In the old documentations of the Portuguese language also appears as a variant of Pedreira or Pedreiro and this is "site covered with stones".

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 given names were adopted as family names.
Religious names includes de Jesus, dos Reis, Ramos, Pascoal, da Assunção, do Nascimento, da Visitação, da Anunciação, da Conceição, Trindade, do Espírito Santo, das Chagas, Graça, Patrocínio, Paz, Luz, Neves, Penha, das Dores, Bonfim, das Virgens, dos Anjos, São João, Santana, Santos and Cruz.
An orphan with unknown parents or a converted person was frequently baptized with the name of a saint, such as João Baptista, João Evangelista, João de Deus, Antônio de Pádua, João Nepomuceno, Francisco de Assis, Francisco de Paula, Francisco de Salles, Inácio de Loiola, Tomás Aquino, José de Calanzans, or José de Cupertino. After that, they usually passed only the second given name 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, Vergueiro, Medrado, Porciúncula, Magro, Magriço, Gago, Galhardo, Terrível, Penteado, Romeiro Verdugo/Berdugo.

Profession and occupation surnames

Portuguese surnames that originated from professions or occupations are few, such as Serrador, Monteiro, Guerreiro, Caldeira, Cubas, Carneiro, Peixe.

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, Ávila or Dávila and Padilha. Other common "foreign" surnames are Bettencourt or Bittencourt, Goulart, Goulard or Gullar, Fontenele or Fontenelle, Rubim, Alencastro, Lencastre, Drummond, Werneck, Vernek or Berneque, Wanderley, Dutra, Brum, Bulcão, Dulmo, Acioli, Doria, Cavalcanti, Netto or Neto.

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 and Junqueira. Others say that they usually chose animal Lion ; plant/vegetable Pimentel ; fruit such as Figo and Moreira ; and tree names such as Pereira or Oliveira, 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 during the inquisition.
Another family name usually pointed out as denoting Jewish ancestry is Espírito Santo and Verdugo/Berdugo. The rationale is that Jews would adopt as a family name an Christian concept as a deception. In fact, they were choosing the most incorporeal Trinity person, that is, the one that offended least their 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 given names that could distinguish them from the Christian population. Most of these names are Portuguese versions of older semitic names like Abenazo, 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 ', Castelão/Castelhão ', Crescente ', Medina ', Romano ', Romão, Romeiro, Tolledam/Toledano ', Vallency and Vascos '; some were patronymics from Biblical names like Abraão ', Lázaro ', Barnabé, Benjamim, Gabril ', Muça ' and Natam ; some are profession names such as Caldeirão ', Martelo ', Pexeiro ', Chaveirol and Prateiro ; some are nicknames such as Calvo, Dourado, Ruivo, Crespo, Querido and Parente. A few names are not distinct from old Portuguese surnames like 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.
The Jewish-Portuguese community that flourished in the Netherlands and Hamburg, Germany, after their expulsion from Portugal used surnames such as Camargo, Costa, Fonseca, Pimentel, Dias, Pinto, and Silveira.
Some of the most famous descendants of Portuguese Jews who lived outside Portugal are the philosopher Baruch Spinoza, the British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli and the classical economist David Ricardo. Other famous members of the Portuguese Synagogue of Amsterdam bore names such as Uriel da Costa, Abraham Pimentel - Rabbi of the Portuguese synagogue of Amsterdam, Isaac Aboab da Fonseca, Isaac de Pinto and Menasseh ben Israel.
The Belmonte Jews 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

Most common surnames in Portugal and Brazil

These are some most frequent surnames in Portugal:
OrderSurnameFrequency
%		Frequency
1Silva9,44%995
2Santos5,96%628
3Ferreira5,25%553
4Pereira4,88%514
5Oliveira3,71%391
6Costa3,68%387
7Rodrigues3,57%376
8Martins3,23%340
9Jesus2,99%315
10Sousa2,95%311
11Fernandes2,82%297
12Gonçalves2,76%291
13Gomes2,57%271
14Lopes2,52%265
15Marques2,51%265
16Alves2,37%250
17Almeida2,27%239
18Ribeiro2,27%239
19Pinto2,09%220
20Carvalho1,97%208
21Castelino1,93%192
22Teixeira1,69%178
23Moreira1,54%162
24Correia1,53%161
25Mendes1,39%146
26Nunes1,32%139
27Soares1,28%135
28Vieira1,2%127
29Monteiro1,11%117
30Cardoso1,07%113
31Rocha1,04%110
32Neves0,98%103
33Coelho0,97%102
34Cruz0,94%99
35Cunha0,93%98
36Pires0,92%97
37Ramos0,86%91
38Reis0,85%90
39Simões0,85%90
40Antunes0,82%86
41Matos0,82%86
42Fonseca0,81%86
43Machado0,76%80
44Araújo0,69%73
45Barbosa0,69%72
46Tavares0,67%71
47Pimentel0,66%70

According to a large scale study of names extracted from various social networking websites, the most common surnames in Brazil are:
SurnameFrequency
Silva2.409818%
Santos2.08495%
Oliveira1.807492%
Souza1.391685%
Rodrigues1.160769%
Lima1.095724%
Alves1.056915%
Ferreira1.012418%
Pereira0.878372%
Gomes0.792352%
Costa0.761942%
Ribeiro0.745374%
Martins0.684785%
Almeida0.660773%
Carvalho0.651517%
Soares0.621934%
Fernandes0.5921%
Lopes0.590011%
Araujo0.569747%
Nascimento0.555078%
Sousa0.534135%

Most common names in Portugal and Brazil

According to the newspaper Público, the most common given names in Portugal, for 105,000 children born in 2008 were:
MalesFemales
João Maria
Rodrigo Beatriz
Martim Ana
Diogo Leonor
Tiago Mariana
Tomás Matilde

According to the IBGE the most common given names in Brazil in 2010 were:
NameIncidents
1. Maria11,734,119
2. José5,754,529
3. Ana3,098,858
4. João2,984,119
5. Antônio2,576,348
6. Francisco1,772,197
7. Carlos1,489,191
8. Paulo1,423,262
9. Pedro1,219,605
10. Lucas1,127,310

According to the Website, the top 10 most common given names in Brazil in 2014 were:
MenWomen
1. MiguelSophia
2. DaviAlice
3. ArthurJulia
4. PedroIsabella
5. GabrielManuela
6. BernardoLaura
7. LucasLuiza
8. MatheusValentina
9. RafaelGiovanna
10. HeitorMaria Eduarda

Brazilian names

Brazilian surnames

Giving Portuguese surnames to Afro-Brazilians and native Brazilians

Until abolition of slavery, slaves did not have surnames, only given names. They were even forbidden to use their distinct African or Native Brazilian names and were christened with a Portuguese given name. While slavery persisted, slaves needed to have distinct names only within the plantation to which they belonged.
It was a common practice to name free slaves after their former owners, so all their descendants have the Portuguese surnames of their former owner.
Indigenous people who were not slaves also chose to use their godparents' surnames as their own.
Religious names are also more common among people with African or native Brazilian ancestors than among people with only European ancestors. A slave who had just a given name like Francisco de Assis could use the partial name de Assis as a surname, since the connective – de – gives the appearance of surname.
The practice of naming Afro-Brazilians with religious surnames was proved even by some indirect approaches. Medical researchers demonstrated that there is a statistical correlation between a religious name and genetic diseases related to African ancestry such as the sickle-cell disease. Due to miscegenation, the correlation exists even among white people that have religious surnames.
It was also common to name indigenous people and freed slaves with surnames which were already very common such as Silva or Costa. That is why Silva is the most common surname in Brazil.

Surnames originated from Native Brazilian words

In the years following Brazil's independence, some old Brazilians families changed their surnames to surnames derived from Tupian languages as a patriotic way to emphasize the new Fatherland. Some of these names are still spelled with Portuguese old orthography, but some are spelled according to the new rules. These names, following the old orthography, include:
Due to emigration, nowadays one can find these surnames even in Portugal.

Brazilian locative surnames

Some Brazilian surnames, like some old Portuguese surnames, are locative surnames that denote the original place where the ancestor who first used it was born or lived. Like surnames that originated from words, this practice started during the patriotic years that followed Brazil's Independence.
These are surnames like Brasil,, Brasiliense, Brasileiro, América, Americano, Bahiense, Cearense and Maranhão
Some of these are toponyms derived from Tupian languages such as:
Due to immigration, nowadays one can find these surnames even in Portugal.
Some locative surnames derived indirectly as the result of its incorporation by the family after the Imperial nobility title of an ancestor. During the times of Emperor Pedro II, non-hereditary nobilities titles would be granted to notable persons, generally statesmen. The title would be granted and named after a location, as in Europe, generally owned by the notable. At their death, the family in order to maintain the reference to the title would adopt them, to the point that many Brazilians still believe these are hereditary.
Thus surnames like:
Rio Branco, Jaguaribe, Ouro Preto, Paranaguá, Araripe, Suassuna, etc...

Non-Portuguese surnames in Brazil

Despite the lesser variation in Portuguese surnames, immigration from other countries increased the diversity of surnames in Brazil.
Some foreign surnames were misspelled after many generations and today cannot be recognized in their original country . Some misspelled foreign surnames are hardly recognized by speakers of the original language such as Collor, Chamareli and Branquini. Sometimes, different rules of romanization were applied to Japanese and Arabic names.
Thus there are extensively adapted or misspelled foreign surnames used by Brazilian descendants of non-Portuguese immigrants. Due to emigration, nowadays one can find these misspelled surnames even in their original country.

Immigrants' surnames

Although not so widely used as in the United States, immigrants used to change their surname to show assimilation or to avoid social discrimination in Brazil.
This practice was most used during World War II by Italian immigrants because Italy was an enemy country for a few years. As Italians are Catholics and were easily assimilated in the larger Brazilian society, the practice is not perceived and almost forgot after a single generation.
The new Portuguese surname was generally chosen based on the original meaning of the foreign surname. Sometimes the new surname had only a phonetic resemblance with the foreign one (the Italian surnames Livieiro and Salviani sometimes were changed to Oliveira and Silva.

Respectful treatment using hypocoristics

In Brazil, until the first half of the 20th century, very important people could be called in a very respectful – but not formal – way using a social or military title and a childish hypocoristics of their given name, such as "Coronel Tonico", "Comendador Paulinho", "Dona Chica", Sinhá Mariquinha. Although an American president could be called Bill or Jimmy by the press, this practice was used in Brazil as a much more respectful treatment and never in a formal way.
Some sociologists have suggested that members of the Brazilian upper classes were often raised by slave women who called them using a hypocoristics, and that childish name continued to be used, but in a respectful way, when they grew up.
Today, this practice is not so widespread, but one can find people informally, but respectfully, called "Seu Zé" or "Dona Ritinha".

Adding given names to surnames

In Brazil, descendants of famous people sometimes use a surname composed of both the given name and the surname of their ancestor, like Ruy Barbosa, :pt:Vital Brasil|Vital Brasil, :pt:Miguel da Silva Pereira|Miguel Pereira and :pt:Lafayette Rodrigues Pereira|Lafayette Rodrigues families.Such practice allows them to be easily recognised by other people as descendants of their famous ancestor. Such a pattern is rare.

Given names

Given names of foreign origin

In Portugal, newborn children can only be named from a list of given names permitted by Civil Law. Names are required to be spelt according to the rules of Portuguese orthography and to be a part of Portuguese-language onomastic. Thus in Portugal the given names show little variation, as traditional names are favoured over modern ones. Examples of popular Portuguese names are António, João, José, Francisco, Pedro or Manuel and Maria, Ana, Isabel, Teresa or Joana. In recent decades there has been a popularity rise for ancient historical names such as Gonçalo, Bernardo, Vasco, Afonso, Leonor, Catarina or Beatriz. If one of the parents is not Portuguese or has double citizenship, foreign names are allowed, as long as the parents present a document proving the requested name is allowed in their country of origin. In the past, immigrant children who were born abroad were required to adopt a Portuguese name in order to become Portuguese citizens – an example is tennis player Michelle de Brito, whose legal name is Micaela. This practice no longer applies.
In Brazil, there is no legal restriction on naming a newborn child, unless the given name has a meaning that can humiliate or embarrass those who bear it.
Brazilians living far from the big cities or lower-class people are prone to create new given names, joining together the given names of the parents or classical given names, changing the spelling of foreign names or even using foreign suffixes that – they may believe – give a sophisticated or modern sound to the new name.
Foreign surnames are also widely used as given names such as Wagner, Mozart, Donizetti, Lamartine, Danton, Anderson, Emerson, Edison, Franklin, Nelson, Wilson, Washington, Jefferson, Jensen, Kennedy, Lenin, Newton, Nobel, Rosenberg, Alextricia and Ocirema. Originally these names showed the political, artistic or scientific admiration of the parents who first used them to name their sons..

Given names originating from Native Brazilian names

During the reign of the second Emperor, Dom Pedro II, the Native Brazilian was used as the symbol of the Empire. At this time, Brazilian people started to use Native Brazilian names as given names. Some are among the most popular until nowadays.
These are names like Araci, Caubi, Guaraci, Iara, Iberê, Ioná, Jaci, Janaína, Jandira, Juçara, Juraci, Jurema, Maiara, Moacir, Moema, Ubiratã, Ceci, Iracema, Peri and Ubirajara.
Recently, Brazilians have started to use other given names of Native Brazilian origin like Rudá, Cauã and Cauê, although these are now very rare and their use connotes the hippie culture.

Indexing

According to the Chicago Manual of Style, Portuguese and Lusophone names are indexed by the final element of the name, and that this practice differs from the indexing of Spanish and Hispanophone names. However, the father's surname is still the one indexed for both Spanish and Portuguese names.