Brazil Naming Customs: Difference between revisions

Sometimes, deciphering a given name in an old handwritten document is not as easy as one might suppose. This could be due to the widespread use of abbreviations or to the difficulty in reading the handwriting. Use these lists of names to assist you in interpreting the names mentioned in the documents.<span class="error">Expansion depth limit exceeded</span>

A Portuguese name is typically composed of '''one or two given names, and a number of family names (rarely one, but often two or three, sometimes more)'''. The first additional names are usually the mother's family surname(s) and the father's family surname(s). It is not uncommon 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. For practicality, usually only the last surname (excluding prepositions) is used in formal greetings. <span class="error">Expansion depth limit exceeded</span>

*From the mid 20th century onward, individuals tended to include their last (father's) surname in formal settings.<span class="error">Expansion depth limit exceeded</span>

*Prepositions 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 (o, as, etc.), meaning "from the" or "of the." The current convention in Portuguese is that they be written in lower case.<span class="error">Expansion depth limit exceeded</span>

*Many names that are etymologically related to Maria are also used. The most common is the name Mariana, a contraction of Maria and Ana.<span class="error">Expansion depth limit exceeded</span>

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.<span class="error">Expansion depth limit exceeded</span>

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 (like "Paulo Salim Lutfalla Maluf" or "Maria Heiko Sugahara Uemura").<span class="error">Expansion depth limit exceeded</span>

*Mattos, Armando de. '''''Manual de Genealogia Portuguesa (Manual of Portuguese Genealogy'''''). Pôrto: Fernando Machado, 1943. (FS Library book 946.9 D27ma; film 0896862 item 4) {{<span class="error">Expansion depth limit exceeded</span>|865596501|disp=At various libraries (WorldCat)}}

*Távora, Luiz Gonzaga de Lancastre e. '''''Dicionário das famílias portuguesas (Dictionary of Portuguese Families'')'''. Lisboa: Quetzal Editores, 1989. (FS Library book 946.9 D4t) This is a register of more than 1,000 Portuguese surnames, with a discussion of their derivations. {{<span class="error">Expansion depth limit exceeded</span>|709663916|disp=At various libraries (WorldCat)}}

*Wold, Lillian Ramos. ''Hispanic Surnames: History and Genealogy''. Fullerton, Calif.: Society of Hispanic Historical and Ancestral Research, c1994. (FS Library book 946 D4h) {{<span class="error">Expansion depth limit exceeded</span>|866155512|disp=At various libraries (WorldCat)}}

*{{<span class="error">Expansion depth limit exceeded</span>|349000|subject_id|disp= Brazil - Names, Personal}}

*{{<span class="error">Expansion depth limit exceeded</span>|1334382|subject_id|disp= Brazil - Names, Personal - Dictionaries}}

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[[Category:Naming Customs]]