If you’ve spent any time in Portugal, you’ve probably met at least one Silva already. It’s not a coincidence: roughly 3% of the country carries that surname, with Santos, Ferreira, Pereira, and Costa not far behind.
Many of the most common surnames come from the land people lived on:
Costa – coast or slope
Oliveira – olive tree
Pereira – pear tree
Silva – woodland (from Latin)
Sousa – a river in northern Portugal
Almeida / Coimbra – many surnames mark the city or town an ancestor came from
Ferreira – comes from the Latin ferraria (iron mine or forge), which gave its name to many places in Portugal. Some families may also have taken it from ferreiroblacksmith
Not every name is about place, though. There are also many patronymic names, which are the ones ending in -es, meaning “child of”. (It’s the same logic as Spanish names ending in -ez.) For example:
Fernandes – “son of Fernando”
Rodrigues – “son of Rodrigo”
Gonçalves – “son of Gonçalo”
Marques – “son of Marcos”
Santos, the second most common name, has its own story. When abandoned infants in Portugal were baptized, many were registered as dos Santos (of the saints), which is one reason the name became so common. This follows a broad tradition of religious surnames, such as de Jesus, dos Anjos (of the angels), and da Assunção (of the Assumption)
How Portuguese surnames are ordered
One last tidbit: traditionally, surnames in Portugal go mother’s family name first, then father’s. The last surname is the one used day to day.
Many Portuguese people carry two surnames, one from each parent, and the law allows parents to choose any order and pass on either or both to their children. That’s how you end up with people carrying four surnames (the legal maximum) on their official paperwork.