The Acordo Ortográfico ("Orthographic Agreement"), valid in Brazil and Portugal, states on Section XI (Proper Nouns): Os nomes próprios personativos, locativos e de qualquer natureza, sendo portugueses ou aportuguesados, serão sujeitos às mesmas regras estabelecidas para os nomes comuns.
[2] In Portugal, personal names have a standard spelling that is considered the norm (even for non-contemporary figures) and the rules are enforced by law by the 'Instituto dos Registos e do Notariado'.
However, older people who were registered with archaic forms have continued to use them (examples include Manoel de Oliveira – the modern spelling would be Manuel).
Regarding surnames, there are no legal restrictions, and as such many people continue to use archaic spellings of family names, as in Athayde or Telles (modern forms Ataíde and Teles).
[4][5][6][7] Names of international inspiration are common, bringing with them the unusual characters "k", "w", and "y" (Katya, William), diacritics that do not match the Brazilian pronunciation (Desirée, pronounced Desirrê) or do not exist in Portuguese (Thaïs), double letters that retain their foreign pronunciation (Roosevelt) or not (Giovanni), silent letters (as in the formerly mentioned Desirée and Thaïs), and letters that are intended to sound differently from the orthographic norms (Juan, if intended to sound as in Spanish, Hannah, if the initial "h" is intended as an aspiration).
A typical alphabetized list may look like: However, in contexts such as a telephone directory or bibliography, the practice of using the (last) surname is preferred: The conjunctives and affixes preceding or following it, such as "da" and "Filho", are not used.
In Brazil, recent immigrants – especially Italians, Germans, Jews and Japanese – usually give their sons only the father's family surname.
Having two surnames from different non-Portuguese origin is also not uncommon, such as the Brazilian celebrity Sabrina Sato Rahal, of Japanese and Swiss-Lebanese descent.
In Portuguese, patronymics are surnames such as Henriques, Pires, Rodrigues, Lopes, Nunes, Mendes, Fernandes, Gonçalves, Esteves and Álvares, where the ending -es means (son of).
One can find today in Portugal and Brazil people who still use surnames that for other people are just personal names, although they were passed from parents to sons for generations, such as Valentim, Alexandre, Fernando, Afonso (note the family name de Melo Afonso) and Antonio (note de Melo Antonio).
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 (edge), Castelo Branco, Cintra (from Sintra), Coimbra, Faria, Gouveia, Guimarães, Lima (the name of a river, not meaning lime), Lisboa (Lisbon), Maia, Mascarenhas (a civil parish of Mirandela, Portugal), Pacheco (from village of Pacheca), Porto (Oporto), Portugal, Serpa, Leão (from León).
Surnames were also derived from geological or geographical forms, such as Pedroso (stony or full of pebbles land), Rocha (rock), Souza/Sousa (from Latin saxa, a place with seixos, or pebbles), Vale (valley, dale), Bierzo (mountain), Ribeiro/Rivero (little river, creek, brook), Siqueira/Sequeira (a non-irrigated land), Castro (ruins of ancient buildings, equivalent to English Chester), Dantas (from d'Antas, a place with antas, i.e. prehistoric stone monuments or dolmens), Costa (coast), Pedreira (quarry), Barreira (clay quarry), Couto (fenced site), Outeiro (hill or hillock),Vilar/Villar (from Latin "villagio", a village), Seixas (pebbles), Veiga/Vega (banks of a river), Córdoba/Córdova (hill near the river), Padrão (rock or stone), Celanova (barn or reservoir).
Religious names includes de Jesus (of Jesus), dos Reis (of the kings, from the day of the Epiphany of the Lord, the Day of the Wise Kings), Ramos (branches, from Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter), Pascoal (of Easter), da Assunção (of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary), do Nascimento (of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary or the Nativity of Jesus – Christmas), da Visitação (of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary), da Anunciação (of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary), da Conceição (of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary), Trindade (from Trinity Sunday), do Espírito Santo (of the Holy Ghost, from the Feast of the Holy Ghost), das Chagas (of wounds, from the Feast of the Five Wounds of Christ), Graça (grace, from Our Lady of Grace), Patrocínio (patronage, from Our Lady of Patronage), Paz (peace, from Our Lady Mediatrix of Peace), Luz (light, from Our Lady of the Divine Light), Neves (snows, from Our Lady of the Snows), Penha (cliff, bluff, from Our Lady of the Bluff of France, that in Spanish is called Nuestra Señora de Peñafrancia), das Dores (of sorrows, from Our Lady of Sorrows), Bonfim (good end, from Our Lord of Good Death), das Virgens (of the virgins martyrs), dos Anjos (of angels, from the Archangels Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel day), São João (Saint John), Santana (Saint Ann), Santos (from 'Todos os Santos', i.e. from All Hallows or All Saints day; Santos comes from the Latin sanctus, which also originated other variants, such as Sanctius, Santious, Sancti, Santis, Santi, Sante or Santé, Santiz, Santiso or Santizo and Santotis) and Cruz (Cross, the most common surname among the Belmonte Jews).
These include names like Veloso (wooly or hairy), Vergueiro (one that bends), Medrado (grown-up), Porciúncula (small part, small piece), Magro (thin), Magriço (skinny), Gago (stutterer, stammerer), Galhardo (gallant, chivalrous), Terrível (terrible), Penteado (hairdressing, the nickname of a branch of the German Werneck family whose members used to wear wigs), Romeiro (a pilgrim) Verdugo/Berdugo ("Tree branch" or 'Executioner").
Portuguese surnames that originated from professions or occupations are few, such as Serrador (sawman), Monteiro (hunter of the hills or woods guard), Guerreiro (warrior), Caldeira (cauldron, i.e. cauldron maker), Cubas (wooden barrels, i.e., barrel maker or cooper), Carneiro (sheep, for a shepherd), Peixe (fish, for a fisherman or a fishmonger).
[20] Most of these names are Portuguese versions of older Semitic (Arabian, Hebrew, Aramaic) names like Abenazo, Abencobra, 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 (Catalan), Castelão/Castelhão (Castilian), Crescente (crescent, from Turkey), Medina (from Medina), Romano, Romão, Romeiro (Roman), Tolledam/Toledano (from Toledo), Vallency (from Valencia) and Vascos (Basque); some were patronymics from Biblical names like Abraão (Abraham), Lázaro (Lazarus), Barnabé (Barnabas), Benjamim (Benjamin), Gabril (Gabriel), Muça (Moses), and Natam (Nathan); some are profession names such as Caldeirão (cauldron), Martelo (hammer), Pexeiro (fishmonger), Chaveirol (locksmith), and Prateiro (silversmith); some are nicknames such as Calvo (bald), Dourado (golden), Ruivo (red-headed), Crespo (curly), Querido (beloved) and Parente (family relative).
[21] 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.
These are surnames like Brasil (Brazil), Brasiliense (Brazilian), Brasileiro (also Brazilian), América, Americano (American), Bahiense (from Bahia city, today called Salvador), Cearense (from Ceará State) and Maranhão (from Maranhão State) Some of these are toponyms derived from Tupian languages such as: Due to immigration, nowadays one can find these surnames even in Portugal.
Despite the lesser variation in Portuguese surnames, immigration from other countries (mainly from Italy, Spain, Germany, France, Netherlands, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, the United Kingdom, Syria, Lebanon, Japan, United States and more recently China, Korea, Africa, Hispanic America and Haiti) increased the diversity of surnames in Brazil.
Some foreign surnames were misspelled after many generations and today cannot be recognized in their original country [citation needed] (the French-Swiss family name Magnan changed to Manhães after some decades).
Sometimes, different rules of romanization were applied to Japanese and Arabic names (like Nacamura and Nakamura, Yamaguchi and Iamaguti, Sabag and Sappak, Bukhalil and Bucalil).
[citation needed] As Italians are Catholics and were easily assimilated in the larger Brazilian society, the practice was not perceived and almost forgotten after a single generation.
[citation needed] 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 personal name, such as "Coronel Tonico" (Colonel Tony), "Comendador Paulinho" (Commander Little Paul), "Dona Chica" (Lady Little Frances"), Sinhá Mariquinha (Mrs. Little Mary, sinhá is a popular pronunciation of senhora, i.e. Mrs.).
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.
Examples of popular Portuguese names are António, João, José, Francisco, Pedro or Manuel (for men) and Maria, Ana, Isabel, Teresa or Joana (for women).
In recent decades there has been a popularity rise for ancient historical names such as Gonçalo, Bernardo, Vasco, Afonso, Leonor, Catarina or Beatriz.
Foreign surnames are also widely used as personal names such as Wagner, Mozart, Donizetti, Lamartine, Danton, Anderson, Emerson, Edison, Franklin, Nelson, Wilson, Washington, Jefferson, Jensen, Kennedy, Lenin, Newton, Nobel, Rosenberg, Alextricia (combination of Alexander and Patricia) and Ocirema (Americo in reverse).
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 (the last four taken from José de Alencar's works).