Portuguese Name - Number of Names

Number of Names

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. Mão de Ferro (iron hand) and Santa Rita (after Saint Rita of Cascia) count only as one surname each. In this case, Santos Abreu would probably have come from this woman's husband.

In Portugal, the custom of giving a child four last names is getting popular, since this way a child can have each of their grandparents' last name. In Portugal and Brazil some people view this as a sign of snobbery, since it used to be the noble families who had a large number of surnames (for instance, the 4th Duke of Lafões (1797–1851), whose full name was Caetano Segismundo de Bragança e Ligne de Sousa Tavares Mascarenhas da Silva). For the sake of simplicity, most Portuguese people have two surnames.

In Portugal, having only one surname is rare, and it usually happens when both the parents have the same last name, to avoid repetitive combinations such as António Santos Santos (which would, however, be a perfectly legal name). In Brazil, having only one surname is common in areas with large communities of non-Portuguese immigrants.