Portuguese Name - General

General

The Portuguese naming system is quite flexible. The law establishes the need for a child to have at least one given name and one last name (surname) from one of the parents, although having only one last name is now very rare. The law also establishes the maximum number of names allowed: up to two given names and four surnames (just in Portugal).

In ancient times it was common practice for daughters to receive the mother's family name and sons to take their father's. For example, from Vasco da Gama's marriage with Catarina de Ataíde, there were six sons who bore the surname da Gama and one daughter who took the surname de Ataíde. Even these days, among the older population, it is still not unusual to find siblings with completely different combinations of surnames.

To add to this basic pattern, a second given name, or other paternal or maternal surnames are optional, up to the aforementioned limit of two given names and four surnames. Both limits are sometimes not respected, especially among the former aristocracy. Usually, the maternal surnames precede the paternal ones, but the opposite is also possible; naturally, if the father is unknown, or has not acknowledged the child, only the mother's family name(s) is/are used. A child can also receive surnames from his/her parents' ancestors, even if those surnames are not part of the parents' names, under the condition that the parents prove those names were used by their ancestors.

Most Portuguese-speaking people use only their last surname (usually the paternal one) in their daily and professional life, but the regular usage of a middle surname or of a combination of two surnames is also widespread.

Complete names are formed generally as in Western Europe, i.e., by first names, followed optionally by one or more middle names, followed by the mother's family surname, followed by the father's family surname. Examples:

1. José Silva: The simplest configuration, with a given name and one family surname, either from the father or the mother. This simple configuration is rather rare, nowadays.
2. José Eduardo Silva: José Eduardo are the given names and Silva the one family name. (However, note that Eduardo may be a valid family name: there is no way of knowing just by looking at the name.) Again, this is not common today, but this could happen in the case that both the child's parents have the same (final) family name (although not necessarily, since the same final family name can be repeated, as in José Eduardo Silva e Silva).
3. José Eduardo Tavares Silva: In this case a second family name has been added. In theory the first surname (Tavares) would come from the mother and the second one (Silva) from the father, but it could be reversed. Another possibility would be that "Tavares Silva" is a composite family name, because this is relatively common in Portuguese surnames, i.e., both names are carried down to all descendants. Hyphenated names are rare in Portuguese, i.e., "Tavares-Silva," a convention which would dispel the confusion. Sometimes this convention is artificially forced by authors, politicians, etc., who want to be correctly cited in other countries.
4. José Eduardo Santos Tavares Melo Silva: The most complete combination of names possible. In this case, the person could have two surnames coming from each parent or one coming from one parent and three from the other. The latter case is not so common, but it is impossible to tell for sure just by looking at the name.
5. If the complete name repeats the name of a relative, e.g., father, grandfather or uncle, it may be suffixed by: Júnior (abbreviated Jr.), Filho (meaning son), Neto (grandson) or Sobrinho (nephew). This is always written with initial upper case and without a separating comma. This practice is rare in Portugal but common in Brazil. Although rare, one can even find people with the suffixes Sobrinho Neto (great-nephew) and Bisneto (great-grandson). This convention is much less common for female names, but in Brazil the suffixes Filha (daughter) and Neta (granddaughter) are used. Roman numerals, such as II, III, etc. for son, grandson, and great-grandson are not used since the practice is not allowed by the law in Brazil and Portugal.

It is quite common for a person to go by one of their surnames which is not the last one in order, especially if the latter is very common. For example, Aníbal Cavaco Silva is commonly called "Cavaco" and Ayrton Senna da Silva chose to be known just as Ayrton Senna because Silva is a very common surname.

Some Portuguese family names are made of two words, most often not hyphenated, but are not composite names, as they were not the result of combining two family names in past generations and constitute a single logical unit. These include toponyms (e.g. Castelo Branco), religious references (e.g. Espírito Santo, Santa Rita), or other expressions (e.g. Corte Real, Mil-Homens). In this case both words must be cited (e.g. writer Camilo Castelo Branco is never referred to as Camilo Branco, and in alphabetical order goes under 'C') and they count as a single unit in what relates to the legal limit of four surnames.

Middle names (second given names and surnames that are not the final name) and suffixes can be abbreviated, but usually the first name and the surname are not abbreviated. A notable exception was writer Ruben A., whose complete name was Ruben Andresen Leitão. Example: José E. C. Lima (Jr.). This differs from rules in Spanish names, which use the mother's family name at the end. Example: Norberto García C.