Portugal 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 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. 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>

In Portugal, given names have been regulated since the creation of the Portuguese Republic, with couples allowed to choose only from a defined list of names. Because of this regulation, common given names have changed little over time.<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>

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