EARLY AMERICAN JEWISH - PORTUGUESE NAMES
by Rufina Bernardetti Silva Mausenbaum
taken from
"The American Jewish Families" by Rabbi Malcolm H. Stern
- 600 geneaologies from 1654-1988

I tried to list the names that are commonly recognized as 'Portuguese' and although there were many more Portuguese -Jews, their names were more 'Jewish' in origin -eg ; Baruch, Bartolomeo, Mordechai

I hope this will help those wanting to know if their names could have Sephardic heritage. As stated by a researcher of note "It is almost impossible to prove if a Portuguese person has Jewish heritage -as it is impossible to prove they were not."

Avezzano
Aguilar
Abecasis
Angulo
Angel
Alvarenga
Andrade
Alberga
Aquilar
Amico
Alvares
Alberga
Alegra
Almeida
Azevedo
Branco
Banco
Bonitto
Bono
Berlandina
Bensaken
Benvenedo
Belinfante
Bonita
Bueno
Belmonte
Castello
Camarra
Carvalho
Cardosa
Cardoso
Cardoza
Coutinho
Coreira
Cunha
da Costa
De Leon
De Sousa
De Saussure
De Lucena
De Siquera
De Campo
De Cario
De Cordova
De Leao
De La Carona
De Casto
De Castro
De Cuevas
De Miranda
De Mercado
De Pinha
De Ribas
Del Sotto
De Pass
De Nogueira
De Paz
De Saussur
De Mesquita
De Cunha
Da Cuhna
De Torres
Des Portas
D'Oliveira
De Shira
Da Costa
De Cordova
De Cuevas
De Vega
De Fonseca
De Sola
De Solis
Da Solis
De Silva
Da Silva
Da Silveira
Da Silveyra
Da Gama
De Veiga
De Quiros
Del Sotto
Dias
Diaz
Delasco
De Molina
De Lyon
De Leon
De Casseres
De Azevedo
De Mello
Delgado
D'Azevedo
Enrique
Esteves
Estes
Emanuel
Fernando
Fernandes
Furtado
Farro
Faro
Franco
Feryera
Furtado
Gasia
Gabriel
Gonsalves
Gonzalves
Gomes
Garcia
Gama
Guedes
Gill
Hendriques
Lindo
Lopes
Lima
Machado
Malaquias
Martin
Mello
Mendes
Mendosa
Mendoza
Mesquita
Morales
Moreira
Monsanto
Malluenda
Maduro
Machado
Madeira
Marques
Martin
Mendes
Navarro
Navaro
Noronha
Nogueira
Nunes
Nunez
Oimenta
Oliveira
Pimenta
Pimental
Pimentel
Peres
Picciotto
Pina
Pargira
Pinto
Peixotto
Pereira
Perreira
Pretto
Perry
Pardo
Passos
Pesao
Pinedo
Pinheiro
Raphael
Rodriques
Rosales
Rice
Rivera
Solis
Solomao
Suares
Sanches
Sanchez
Santo
Santos
Saportas
Sasportas
Sarzedas
Silveira
Siquerra
Soares
Silva
Salvador
Seixas
Torres
Touro
Tabar
Toledano
Thomas
Texeira
Zacuto

Surnames given or adopted by the Jews who were forced to convert had usually nothing to do with belonging to the Jewish people.

Firts rule - most of the names ending with "es" are patronimics, like "Ben" in Hebre or "Ibn" in Arabic.

Alvares - is the son of Alvaro
Alves - probably (I am not sure) the son of Alvo (White)
Goncalves - the son of Goncalo
Sanches - the son of Sancho
Soares - I don't know may be the son of Soeiro
Bettencourt - is a family that came from France
da Rita - probably the son of Rita (same as Margarita)
Dias - I don't know (Dia means day)
Cardoso - is the name of a place in Portugal, but also in Spain
Inacio - is a given name (my own too). Given names used as surnames are
frequent. The largest crypto-Jewish family in Belmonte is "Diogo
Henriques". One of the first "Diogo Henriques" to be born there was
"Rafael Diogo Henriques". His son used the surname rafael and from there
on all this branch of the family uses the surname rafael and not Diogo
Henriques. The same happened with the descendents of the "big blindman"
Daniel, whose real surname I don't know, but his descendants are all
Daniel. Inacio as a first name was Ignacio in the past and has something
to do with "fire" (ignis).
Pareira - is Pear Tree
Silveira - is a bush
Teixeira - comes probably from "teixo" also a kind of bush.

From Inacio Steinhardt

E-mail: Rufina Bernardetti Silva Mausenbaum