Portuguese name

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A typical Portuguese name is composed of one or two given names, and two family names. The first surname is the same as the last surname in the mother's maiden name, and the second surname is the same as the last surname of the father. Married women may add their husband's surname to the end of their own name (without replacing any other name), but this is not mandatory.

The Portuguese naming system is quite flexible. At birth, a child can be given one or two given names and up to four surnames. Children receive surnames from both their parents. Usually, the mother's surname(s) precedes the father's, but the opposite is possible too. In Portugal, since 1977, the child's last name can come either from the father or from the mother, but the latter is still uncommon.

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:

1. José Silva: the simplest configuration, with a first name and the father's family surname
2. 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)
3. 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. )
4. Usually 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 its use is not prohibited. 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;
5. 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"). Therefore, it is not correct to refer to Luís Inácio Lula da Silva as Mr. Da Silva, but rather Mr. Silva.

For example, if José Santos Almeida and Maria Abreu Melo had a daughter, her name could simply be Joana Melo Almeida (given name + mother's last name + father's last name). However, they could very well give her two given names, for example Joana Madalena and combine their surnames in various ways, such has Joana Madalena Melo Almeida, Joana Madalena Abreu Melo Almeida (two surnames from the mother, one from the father), Joana Madalena Abreu Santos Almeida (one name from the mother, two from the father) or even Joana Madalena Abreu Melo Santos Almeida (two names from each parent). This child would probably become known by her final surname, in this case Joana Almeida.

However, her parents could decide to change the order of surnames and name her Joana Almeida Melo and so on. In this case she would probably become known by Joana Melo.

Note that is quite common for a person to go by one of their surnames which is not the "last" one, especially if the other surname(s) are very common. For example, the Portuguese President Aníbal Cavaco Silva is commonly called "Cavaco", not "Silva". The same happens in Brazil, one notable example of this being Formula One great Ayrton Senna da Silva, who chose to be known as Ayrton Senna.

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.

In Portugal, a woman may adopt her husband's surname(s), but nevertheless she always keeps her birth names. For example, when Maria Abreu Melo marries José Santos Almeida, she could choose to become Maria Abreu Melo Almeida or Maria Abreu Melo Santos Almeida. The custom of a woman changing her name upon marriage was not a Portuguese tradition and it spread in the 20th century, particularly during the Estado Novo when it became almost obligatory. This sometimes caused some confusing situations, for example when a woman named Ana Lima Silva married a man named João Lima, her name would become Ana Lima Silva Lima. Nowadays, fewer women adopt, even officially, their husbands' names, and among those who do so officially, it is quite common not to use it either in their professional or informal life.

In Portugal, since 1977, husbands too can adopt their wives' surname, and this is also becoming common. When this happens, usually both spouses change their name after marriage (for example, José Santos Almeida and Maria Abreu Melo could become José Santos Melo Almeida and Maria Abreu Melo Almeida).

In Brazil until the recent reform of the Civil Law women had to take their husbands' surnames; not doing so was seen as evidence of concubinage. The mandatory adoption of the new name led to unusual combinations, like in the (not uncommon) case of both spouses having the same surname. This custom has been fading since the 1970s and nowadays it is rarely found, due to the cumbersome need to update registries, documents, etc. after the name change and back again in the event of divorce. Recently, the new Civil Code stated that a woman has the option of whether or not changing her name after marriage and a man may choose to take his wife's surname.

It is not uncommon that a married woman has two given names and six surnames, the last two coming from her husband. In addition, some of these names may be composite (with 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' (iron hand) and 'Santa Rita' (after Saint Rita of Cascia) 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 getting popular, since this way a child can have each of their grandparents' last name. Some people view this as a sign of snobbism, since it used to be the noble families who had a ridiculous number of surnames (Pedro IV of Portugal, for instance, was officially named Pedro de Alcântara Francisco António João Carlos Xavier de Paula Miguel Rafael Joaquim José Gonzaga Pascoal Cipriano Serafim de Bragança e Bourbon). For the sake of simplicity, most Portuguese people have two surnames. Having only one surname is rare, and it usually happens when both the parents have the same last name (to avoid people from being António Santos e Santos).

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In Brazil, due to slavery, the general rules are more fluid and interesting exceptions may happen^{[citation needed]}. Neither slaves nor Indians had Iberian surnames (slaves were even forbidden to use their distinct African names and were christened with a common Portuguese given name). While slavery persisted, slaves need to have distinct names only within the plantation (fazenda or engenho) to which they belonged. This explains why so many archaic or uncanny names were resurrected in Brazil^{[citation needed]}. Freed slaves would adopt a name referring to their job (like "Ferreira" blacksmith, "Serrador", sawman or "Sapateiro", shoemaker)^{[citation needed]}. After the end of slavery, the common practice was to give the slaves one of the surnames of their former owner but this did not ensure all of them having surnames, as many slaves had already fled the farms or were born in quilombos^{[citation needed]}. People without surnames were very common in Brazil for decades^{[citation needed]}, but they eventually adopted as surname what had been a given name ("Martinho", "Abraão", "Jorge", etc.) or were given an arbitrary common surname^{[citation needed]}. Among these "Silva" (from the forest/bosk/timberland), "[da] Costa" (from the coast), "[dos] Santos" (of the Saints) and "da Mata" (of the Woods) were the most common^{[citation needed]}. However, as recently as 1996 you could still occasionally come across a woman named only "Maria" or a man called only "José Carlos"^{[citation needed]}.

Because Maria (like English Mary, from Hebrew Miryam, via Latin Maria) was (especially in the past) extremely common as the first of two given names, women named Maria are usually known by their second given name, which can even be a masculine name. For instance, women with the name 'Maria de Lurdes' are called 'Lurdes' (after Lourdes, the place of a Marian apparition). 'João' (John) is a masculine name, but many women have 'Maria João' as given names and are informally called only 'João' (not in Brazil though). This custom became rare in the last few decades.

Similar behaviour happened with masculine names some decades ago, where it was common to see names like João Maria, José Maria, Manuel Maria, etc. In this case, Maria would always come in the second given name, in honour of Virgin Mary, and the first name would then be a masculine name.

The particles de or da (= de + article a) are not considered part of the surname, and should not be alphabetized in name lists. João da Silva is Mr Silva, not Mr da Silva. António de Castro is alphabetized as Castro, António de.

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).

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.

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 in Portugal, Cape Verde and Brazil.

Other surnames are originated from the professions, such as Ferreira (blacksmith). A large number of surnames have geographical origin, being the name of a village, town, city or land.

• Portuguese alphabet
• Spanish naming customs

• Direcção Geral de Registos e Notariados - Nomes admitidos - List of first names admitted by law (Portugal)