Origin of Portuguese Surnames
One single name or a name followed by a patronym was the most common way that the native pre-Roman people named themselves. The names could be Celtic (Mantaus), Lusitanian (Casae), Iberian (Sunua) or Conii (Alainus). The names were clearly ethnic and some typical of a tribe or region. A slow adoption of the Roman onomastic occurred after the end of the first century a.c. with the adoption of a Roman name or of the tria nomina:praenomen (given name), nomen (gentile) and cognomen.
Most of Portuguese surnames have a patronymical, locative or religious origin.
Read more about this topic: Portuguese Name
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“In the woods in a winter afternoon one will see as readily the origin of the stained glass window, with which Gothic cathedrals are adorned, in the colors of the western sky seen through the bare and crossing branches of the forest.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“In the woods in a winter afternoon one will see as readily the origin of the stained glass window, with which Gothic cathedrals are adorned, in the colors of the western sky seen through the bare and crossing branches of the forest.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)