Sousa (surname)

Sousa, Souza, de Sousa (literally 'from Sousa'), de Souza, Dsouza or D'Souza (/ˈsuːzə/ SOO-zə, Portuguese: [ˈso(w)zɐ]) is a common Portuguese-language surname, especially in Portugal, Brazil, East Timor, India (among Catholics in Goa, Mumbai, Mangaluru and Fort Kochi), and Galicia.

[1] In Africa, the name is common in former Portuguese colonies, especially among people who have some Portuguese and Brazilian roots in Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Angola, São Tomé and Príncipe, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, and Mozambique.

The Galician equivalent of this surname is Sosa and it was brought to Galicia (Spain) by the Portuguese.

Among those are the descendants of Francisco Félix de Sousa, a white Portuguese-Brazilian man from Salvador, Bahia, in Brazil, who founded the De Souza family on the West African coast.

He was once the richest man in the region due to his involvement in the slave trade.