Sephardic Surnames Portuguese Jews Surnames Portuguese Sephardic Jews
The true origin of Portuguese Sephardic Jewish Surnames explained. Find out what inspired Portuguese Jews to adopt the surnames they did.
Email: geors65@gmail.com
Oliveira, Henriques, Cardoso, Sampaio, Pereira, Rodrigues, Castro, Fonseca, Abreu, Nunes, Marques, Coelho, Queiroz, Macieira, Pimentel, Figueira, Carneiro, Menezes, Flores, Correia, Benveniste, Fernandes, Neves, Sousa, Furtado, Miranda, Tavares, Aguiar, Moreno, Faria, Ximenes, Annes, Mascarenhas, Mesquita, Penso, Marques, Medina, Guterres, Espinosa, Esteves, Rosa, Andrade, Dias, Teixeira, Pires, Mendes, Costa, Mendonça, Alves, Cunha, Bettencourt, Lopes, Lemos, Delmar, Lobo, Cruz, Bensaude, Morais, Medeiros, Sotomaior, Noronha, Penafiel, Gomes, Lopes, Falcão, Simões, Serra, Matos, Amorim, Correia, Belmonte, Brandão, Ferreira, Peixotto, Benevides, Cordeiro, Melo, Pardo, Vaz, Martins, Soares, Pinto, Almeida, Borges, Santos, Vasconcelos, Torres, Alvarez, Teles, Coutinho, Franco, Pacheco, Lobato, Leão, Gouveia, Carvalho, Vieira, Sampaio, Cabral, Moreira, Silva, Pinheiro, Lima, Velho, Garcia, Nogueira, Machado, Ribeiro, Martins, Pessoa, Pilão, Araújo, Albuquerque, Robles, Antunes,
SOME NECESSARY REASONS WHY PORTUGUESE SEPHARDIC JEWS HAD TO ADOPT NEW SURNAMES:
- they simply had NO CHOICE! It was decreed
- to prove unequivocally that they renounced Judaism, thus removing potential dangers
of harm against family & self
- to gain favours/advantages/connections in the power structures of Portuguese society:
Royals, Clergy, Aristocracy
- possession of a 'good, common' Christian surname meant having citizenship, and certain rights & privileges
- a common Portuguese Catholic sounding surname meant not having to always look over your shoulder
* As soon as Portuguese Sephardic Jews felt safe abroad, they would sometimes revert back to using their original, more formal, or more traditional pre-inquisition Hebrew surnames. Indeed the distinction between what exactly are Iberian Christian & Iberian Hebrew surnames becomes a very blurred, tedious task in Iberian surname semantics. No wonder why Europeans 500 years ago always referred to the Portuguese as Jews, and the Jews as Portuguese, so deeply imbued the people were. The end result is that we are left with almost imperceptible differences between them in: physical appearance, surnames, culture, even cuisine, save for the religion of course. Where did one culture begin, and the other end? Let's consider this: Even after so much blending took place in Portugal in the past 500 years between the Portuguese Catholics and Jews, let's not forget that Judaism has greatly influenced Portugal forever, as they have lived in Portugal since after the destruction of the 2nd temple in Jerusalem in 70 a.d. I hope that the next section at least provides a little clarity on the deeply inter-woven, hybrid nature of Portuguese Sephardic surnames.
Some Common Pre-Inquisition & Forced Conversion Portuguese & Spanish Sephardic Jewish Surnames:
Cunha = from the fusion of Cohen+Cuna, Ko'en, Kohen
Medina = meaning Israel and also home
Meneses, Menezes = from Manasseh, Menashe, Manassés, Hebrew Biblical
Pacheco = Hebrew name meaning "Jehovah sees" or "whose eyes Jehovah opened." In the bible, this is the name of a king of Samaria, the son of king Menahem.
Perez, Pires = Biblical name. Peretz, Peres = son of Judah
Salomé: The unrighteous Salomé requested John's head - he was beheaded in prison. His head was given to Herodias’s daughter (Salomé) who took it to her mother (Mark 6:21–28).
The righteous Salomé was the wife of Zebedee (Matthew 27:56), the mother of the disciples James and John, and a female follower of Jesus. She was also one of the women “looking on from a distance” when Jesus was being crucified—with her were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph and James (Mark 15:40).
Abecassis = From the word ‘Av’ meaning Father and Arabic ‘kassas’ meaning storyteller. In Algeria, community leaders and rabbis were given the title ‘Kassis’. Many Jews from Gibraltar, Portugal and Morocco share this name
Castro = This surname belonged to many Iberian Sephardic Jews before the inquisition and forced conversions
Rua = Hebrew 'Ruah' for "spirit"
Matias = 'Matthias' one of the 12 apostles. In Hebrew Matthias means "Gift of God'.
Moniz: Monitz and Monnish
Franco = This name was used by Sephardic Jews long before the inquisition & forced conversions in Spain and Portugal
Sousa, Souza = Shushan from the Jewish communities of Spain and Portugal
Soares, Suárez (Zoaretz) = means "Son of Suah" equivalent to "Ben Suah" Genesis 25:2,
Pereira = place/land in Israel called 'Perea'
Masada/Massada = ...With Jerusalem in ruins, the Romans turned their attention to taking down Masada, the last community in Judea with 960 rebels, including many women and children. When it became clear that the Romans were going to overtake them, all but 7 took their own lives
Amorim (or) Amoraim = The Amoraim the Palestinian and Babylonian teachers from the 3rd to the 5th centuries CE. The Amoraim were expounders of the Tannaitic teachings
Abreu = 'Hebreu, Hebrew', Jew
Simões, Simones, Simeão = Shimon, Shama. Simon is a very common Hebrew name in the Bible which means "one who hears"
Malaquias = “Malaqhiáh” Messenger of God. Also a book of the Bible called 'Malachi'
Mica = this name derives from the Biblical Hebrew Prophet 'Micah' meaning "who is like the Lord"
Zarco = João Gonçalves Zarco, of Jewish origin, (believed to be the true name of 'Christopher Columbus') was a Portuguese caravel fleet commander. He converted to Christianity. Zarco signifies one who has light blue eyes
Gabay (or) Gabbay = from the Hebrew word meaning ‘warden’ (of a synagogue). This title referred to a variety of roles, but most were related to the collection of taxes, fees and other payments from Jews. Gabbay is well documented as a Jewish family name in 13th century Spain with 'Samuel Gabay' from Tidal. Between the 15th and 17th centuries the name spread to Portugal, Italy, France...
Franco = A variant of the Latin ‘Francis’ meaning ‘free one’ or ‘Frenchman’. A common surname in the Iberian Peninsula which belonged to influential pre-conversion Sephardic Jewish families
Cardozo, Cardoso = Cadosh (Hebrew) KADOSH/CADOSH (or) BEN CADOSH/BEN KADOSH - used by 'Cohanim' Priestly branches
Queiros/Queiroz = from 'Ben Quirós' in Hebrew
Guedes = from 'Quedes'
Gadelha, Guedelha = from the Hebrew 'Ben Guedaliah', Gedaliah, Guedalla
Bentes = Hebrew in origin but used by many Portuguese & Brazilians
Peixeiro = Used by Jews before the forced conversions
Benveniste (or) Beneviste = From the Latin ‘veniste’ meaning ‘you came’ and ‘ben’ meaning ‘son’ in Hebrew. This was a widespread Sephardic family originating in Spain, Portugal, and later migrated throughout the Ottoman Empire following the expulsions
Pinto = from the Portuguese/Spanish word meaning 'chick'. Pinto is also a province in Spain near Madrid and was most likely a name derived from the Jews that lived there
Cantor = Hebrew (Kantor) synagogue Singer/Chanter
Zacharias = Zechariah was a person in the Hebrew Bible traditionally considered the author of the 'Book of Zechariah' the eleventh of the twelve minor prophets. He was a prophet of the Kingdom of Judah, and like the prophet ''Ezekiel, was of priestly extraction
Batista/Baptista = belongs to the category of surnames translated from Hebrew to Portuguese and Spanish. In this case it is the translation of the Hebrew surname 'Baruch' which means he who blesses which shows a clear 'Cohanim-priestly' Hebrew origin
************************************************************************************
SEPHARDIC JEWS: (Portugal, Spain, Latin America, Israel, Morocco, Turkey Italy, etc.)
Many Portuguese (Sephardic) Jewish surnames are toponymic derived from:
plants /bushes Teixeira (teixo bush), flowers Rosa (rose), trees Pereira (pear tree), bushes Cardoso (thorny bush), fruits Lima (lime), vegetables Pimentel (pepper), animals Cordeiro (lamb), mountains Serra (mountain range), rivers Ribeiro (creek, small river).
**********
ASHKENAZI JEWS: (Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Scandinavia, Hungary, Israel, Latin America, etc.)
The (Ashkenazi) Jews (also) possess, ornamental nature derived surnames:
Applebaum (Apple Tree), Rosenthal (Valley of Roses), Bloomfield (Field of Flowers), Kirschenbaum (Cherry Tree), Birnbaum (Pear Tree), Weinrebe (Grapevine), Goldberg (gold mountain), and many more.
**********
THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF SEPHARDIC SURNAMES WERE TAKEN FROM:
Toponymic Geographic, derived from Nature'
Animals Pinto (chick), Fruit Figo (fig), Vegetables Pimentel (field of peppers), Plants/Bushes Teixeira (teixo bush), Flowers Rosa (rose), Trees Oliveira (olive tree grove)
'Patronymic' meaning 'son-of '
Rodrigues (son of Rodrigo), Nunes (son of Nuno), Mendes (son of Mendo), Fernandes (son of Fernando)
'Physical Human Characteristics'
Moreno (olive skinned), Delgado (thin), Fragoso (frail), Lindo (beautiful), Velho (old)
'Colours'
Branco (white), Pardo (brown), Preto (black), laranja (orange), Verde (green)
'Places / Things'
Ponte (bridge), Albergaria (shelter), Chaves (keys), Machado (axe), Matos (forests)
'Occupations'
Ferreira (blacksmith), Alfaiate (tailor), Seixeiro (seamen), Sapateiro (shoemaker)
'Religion'
Santos (saints), Cruz (cross), Rosario (rosary), Anjos (angels), de Jesus (Jesus), Batista (Baptist), Espírito Santo (Holy Spirit)
Oliveira, Henriques, Cardoso, Sampaio, Pereira, Rodrigues, Castro, Fonseca, Abreu, Nunes, Marques, Coelho, Queiroz, Macieira, Pimentel, Figueira, Carneiro, Menezes, Flores, Correia, Benveniste, Fernandes, Neves, Sousa, Furtado, Miranda, Tavares, Aguiar, Moreno, Faria, Ximenes, Annes, Mascarenhas, Mesquita, Penso, Marques, Medina, Guterres, Espinosa, Esteves, Rosa, Andrade, Dias, Teixeira, Pires, Mendes, Costa, Mendonça, Alves, Cunha, Bettencourt, Lopes, Lemos, Delmar, Lobo, Cruz, Bensaude, Morais, Medeiros, Sotomaior, Noronha, Penafiel, Gomes, Lopes, Falcão, Simões, Serra, Matos, Amorim, Correia, Belmonte, Brandão, Ferreira, Peixotto, Benevides, Cordeiro, Melo, Pardo, Vaz, Martins, Soares, Pinto, Almeida, Borges, Santos, Vasconcelos, Torres, Alvarez, Teles, Coutinho, Franco, Pacheco, Lobato, Leão, Gouveia, Carvalho, Vieira, Sampaio, Cabral, Moreira, Silva, Pinheiro, Lima, Velho, Garcia, Nogueira, Machado, Ribeiro, Martins, Pessoa, Pilão, Araújo, Albuquerque, Robles, Antunes,
SOME NECESSARY REASONS WHY PORTUGUESE SEPHARDIC JEWS HAD TO ADOPT NEW SURNAMES:
- they simply had NO CHOICE! It was decreed
- to prove unequivocally that they renounced Judaism, thus removing potential dangers
of harm against family & self
- to gain favours/advantages/connections in the power structures of Portuguese society:
Royals, Clergy, Aristocracy
- possession of a 'good, common' Christian surname meant having citizenship, and certain rights & privileges
- a common Portuguese Catholic sounding surname meant not having to always look over your shoulder
* As soon as Portuguese Sephardic Jews felt safe abroad, they would sometimes revert back to using their original, more formal, or more traditional pre-inquisition Hebrew surnames. Indeed the distinction between what exactly are Iberian Christian & Iberian Hebrew surnames becomes a very blurred, tedious task in Iberian surname semantics. No wonder why Europeans 500 years ago always referred to the Portuguese as Jews, and the Jews as Portuguese, so deeply imbued the people were. The end result is that we are left with almost imperceptible differences between them in: physical appearance, surnames, culture, even cuisine, save for the religion of course. Where did one culture begin, and the other end? Let's consider this: Even after so much blending took place in Portugal in the past 500 years between the Portuguese Catholics and Jews, let's not forget that Judaism has greatly influenced Portugal forever, as they have lived in Portugal since after the destruction of the 2nd temple in Jerusalem in 70 a.d. I hope that the next section at least provides a little clarity on the deeply inter-woven, hybrid nature of Portuguese Sephardic surnames.
Some Common Pre-Inquisition & Forced Conversion Portuguese & Spanish Sephardic Jewish Surnames:
Cunha = from the fusion of Cohen+Cuna, Ko'en, Kohen
Medina = meaning Israel and also home
Meneses, Menezes = from Manasseh, Menashe, Manassés, Hebrew Biblical
Pacheco = Hebrew name meaning "Jehovah sees" or "whose eyes Jehovah opened." In the bible, this is the name of a king of Samaria, the son of king Menahem.
Perez, Pires = Biblical name. Peretz, Peres = son of Judah
Salomé: The unrighteous Salomé requested John's head - he was beheaded in prison. His head was given to Herodias’s daughter (Salomé) who took it to her mother (Mark 6:21–28).
The righteous Salomé was the wife of Zebedee (Matthew 27:56), the mother of the disciples James and John, and a female follower of Jesus. She was also one of the women “looking on from a distance” when Jesus was being crucified—with her were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph and James (Mark 15:40).
Abecassis = From the word ‘Av’ meaning Father and Arabic ‘kassas’ meaning storyteller. In Algeria, community leaders and rabbis were given the title ‘Kassis’. Many Jews from Gibraltar, Portugal and Morocco share this name
Castro = This surname belonged to many Iberian Sephardic Jews before the inquisition and forced conversions
Rua = Hebrew 'Ruah' for "spirit"
Matias = 'Matthias' one of the 12 apostles. In Hebrew Matthias means "Gift of God'.
Moniz: Monitz and Monnish
Franco = This name was used by Sephardic Jews long before the inquisition & forced conversions in Spain and Portugal
Sousa, Souza = Shushan from the Jewish communities of Spain and Portugal
Soares, Suárez (Zoaretz) = means "Son of Suah" equivalent to "Ben Suah" Genesis 25:2,
Pereira = place/land in Israel called 'Perea'
Masada/Massada = ...With Jerusalem in ruins, the Romans turned their attention to taking down Masada, the last community in Judea with 960 rebels, including many women and children. When it became clear that the Romans were going to overtake them, all but 7 took their own lives
Amorim (or) Amoraim = The Amoraim the Palestinian and Babylonian teachers from the 3rd to the 5th centuries CE. The Amoraim were expounders of the Tannaitic teachings
Abreu = 'Hebreu, Hebrew', Jew
Simões, Simones, Simeão = Shimon, Shama. Simon is a very common Hebrew name in the Bible which means "one who hears"
Malaquias = “Malaqhiáh” Messenger of God. Also a book of the Bible called 'Malachi'
Mica = this name derives from the Biblical Hebrew Prophet 'Micah' meaning "who is like the Lord"
Zarco = João Gonçalves Zarco, of Jewish origin, (believed to be the true name of 'Christopher Columbus') was a Portuguese caravel fleet commander. He converted to Christianity. Zarco signifies one who has light blue eyes
Gabay (or) Gabbay = from the Hebrew word meaning ‘warden’ (of a synagogue). This title referred to a variety of roles, but most were related to the collection of taxes, fees and other payments from Jews. Gabbay is well documented as a Jewish family name in 13th century Spain with 'Samuel Gabay' from Tidal. Between the 15th and 17th centuries the name spread to Portugal, Italy, France...
Franco = A variant of the Latin ‘Francis’ meaning ‘free one’ or ‘Frenchman’. A common surname in the Iberian Peninsula which belonged to influential pre-conversion Sephardic Jewish families
Cardozo, Cardoso = Cadosh (Hebrew) KADOSH/CADOSH (or) BEN CADOSH/BEN KADOSH - used by 'Cohanim' Priestly branches
Queiros/Queiroz = from 'Ben Quirós' in Hebrew
Guedes = from 'Quedes'
Gadelha, Guedelha = from the Hebrew 'Ben Guedaliah', Gedaliah, Guedalla
Bentes = Hebrew in origin but used by many Portuguese & Brazilians
Peixeiro = Used by Jews before the forced conversions
Benveniste (or) Beneviste = From the Latin ‘veniste’ meaning ‘you came’ and ‘ben’ meaning ‘son’ in Hebrew. This was a widespread Sephardic family originating in Spain, Portugal, and later migrated throughout the Ottoman Empire following the expulsions
Pinto = from the Portuguese/Spanish word meaning 'chick'. Pinto is also a province in Spain near Madrid and was most likely a name derived from the Jews that lived there
Cantor = Hebrew (Kantor) synagogue Singer/Chanter
Zacharias = Zechariah was a person in the Hebrew Bible traditionally considered the author of the 'Book of Zechariah' the eleventh of the twelve minor prophets. He was a prophet of the Kingdom of Judah, and like the prophet ''Ezekiel, was of priestly extraction
Batista/Baptista = belongs to the category of surnames translated from Hebrew to Portuguese and Spanish. In this case it is the translation of the Hebrew surname 'Baruch' which means he who blesses which shows a clear 'Cohanim-priestly' Hebrew origin
************************************************************************************
SEPHARDIC JEWS: (Portugal, Spain, Latin America, Israel, Morocco, Turkey Italy, etc.)
Many Portuguese (Sephardic) Jewish surnames are toponymic derived from:
plants /bushes Teixeira (teixo bush), flowers Rosa (rose), trees Pereira (pear tree), bushes Cardoso (thorny bush), fruits Lima (lime), vegetables Pimentel (pepper), animals Cordeiro (lamb), mountains Serra (mountain range), rivers Ribeiro (creek, small river).
**********
ASHKENAZI JEWS: (Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Scandinavia, Hungary, Israel, Latin America, etc.)
The (Ashkenazi) Jews (also) possess, ornamental nature derived surnames:
Applebaum (Apple Tree), Rosenthal (Valley of Roses), Bloomfield (Field of Flowers), Kirschenbaum (Cherry Tree), Birnbaum (Pear Tree), Weinrebe (Grapevine), Goldberg (gold mountain), and many more.
**********
THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF SEPHARDIC SURNAMES WERE TAKEN FROM:
Toponymic Geographic, derived from Nature'
Animals Pinto (chick), Fruit Figo (fig), Vegetables Pimentel (field of peppers), Plants/Bushes Teixeira (teixo bush), Flowers Rosa (rose), Trees Oliveira (olive tree grove)
'Patronymic' meaning 'son-of '
Rodrigues (son of Rodrigo), Nunes (son of Nuno), Mendes (son of Mendo), Fernandes (son of Fernando)
'Physical Human Characteristics'
Moreno (olive skinned), Delgado (thin), Fragoso (frail), Lindo (beautiful), Velho (old)
'Colours'
Branco (white), Pardo (brown), Preto (black), laranja (orange), Verde (green)
'Places / Things'
Ponte (bridge), Albergaria (shelter), Chaves (keys), Machado (axe), Matos (forests)
'Occupations'
Ferreira (blacksmith), Alfaiate (tailor), Seixeiro (seamen), Sapateiro (shoemaker)
'Religion'
Santos (saints), Cruz (cross), Rosario (rosary), Anjos (angels), de Jesus (Jesus), Batista (Baptist), Espírito Santo (Holy Spirit)
