Portuguese Name - Collation

Collation

When producing alphabetized lists of Portuguese names, generally the full name is used. This occurs mainly in schools or official documents, and it is usually done because many people prefer to use multiple surname combinations in their daily life, or do not use last surname at all. It is therefore difficult to order people by the surnames they use. A typical alphabetized list:

• António Borges Santos
• António Silva Abreu Melo
• Leonor Soares Henriques Pais
• Sofia Matilde Almeida Pais

However, in areas 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. When a full composite surname is known, it is alphabetized according to the first name even if 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 alphabetization of Portuguese surnames, such as in a telephone directory. For example:

• Chagas Filho, Carlos
• Siqueira Campos, Luis Pereira
• Sousa, Luís de

These rules may change if the Portuguese name has been absorbed into a different culture, as in Anglo-Saxon countries. In the United States, for example, where many Portuguese have emigrated since the 18th century to New Jersey and New Hampshire, alphabetising rules use "da" and "de" as part of the surname. The Portuguese-American author John Dos Passos, who is referred to as having the surname Dos Passos, is a good example.