Portuguese Name - The Particle 'de'

The Particle 'de'

Prepositions that can be used in Portuguese surnames are da, das, do, dos and de, such as in Luís de Sousa, Maria da Conceição, Osvaldo dos Santos, Luísa das Neves, etc. and mean "from" or "of". Da, dos, etc. are contractions of the preposition de and a definite article (o, as, etc.), meaning "from the" or "of the". The current convention in Portuguese is that they be written in lower case. Different from in Italian surnames, these conjunctives are usually not part of a composite name, i.e., "Sousa" is not different from "de Sousa", and both are ordered under 'S' in an alphabetical list. Therefore, one should not refer to Luís Inácio Lula da Silva as Mr. Da Silva but rather Mr. Silva. The conjunction "e" (and) is also common, e.g. "Maria Costa e Silva". Most commonly this would be a composite surname; in this case the person should be addressed as "Ms Costa e Silva", and not as Ms. Silva.

For example, if José Santos Almeida and Maria Abreu Melo had a daughter, her name could simply be Joana Melo Almeida (given name + mother's last name + father's last name). However, they could give her two given names, for example Joana Madalena, and combine their surnames in various ways, such has Joana Madalena Melo Almeida, Joana Madalena Abreu Melo Almeida (two surnames from the mother, one from the father), Joana Madalena Abreu Santos Almeida (one name from the mother, two from the father), or even Joana Madalena Abreu Melo Santos Almeida (two names from each parent). It would also be possible to use surnames that are not part of either parent's legal name, but which the parents would be entitled to use, i.e., a surname from a grandparent or a great-grandparent that was not transmitted to the father or the mother. This child would probably become known by her final surname, Joana Almeida. However, her parents could decide to change the order of surnames and name her Joana Almeida Melo, etc. In this case she would probably be known as Joana Melo.

The most well-known exception to this norm is Angolan president José Eduardo dos Santos, who is frequently referred to as President Dos Santos, even among Portuguese-speaking people and in Portuguese-language media (although, in Portugal, the forms "Presidente José Eduardo dos Santos" or "Presidente Eduardo dos Santos" are still more common).