Pronunciation - how to pronounce Portuguese family names

In this episode, you’ll learn how to pronounce some of the most popular Portuguese family names. You’ll also learn about naming conventions in Portugal.


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Naming conventions

Portuguese can have first and middle names. In this example, Ana Sofia.

To this you add the family names (plural). The family names can be one or two from the mother, and one or two from the father. First come the mother’s family names (this includes the last one from her mother and the last one from her father), then come the father’s family names (the last one from his mother and the last one from his father).

There can also be only one name from the mother and only one name from the father (it’s a personal choice from the parents to do this), if that’s the case, then the choice falls on the last name of the parents’ fathers).

List of family names

Abreu

Aguiar

Albuquerque

Almeida

Álvares

Amaral

Andrade

Araújo

Azevedo

Barros

Barbosa

Barradas

Bastos

Bernardes

Bettencourt

Borges

Botelho

Brito

Cabral

Campos

Cardoso

Carneiro

Carvalho

Coelho

Cordeiro

Correia

Costa

Coutinho

Cunha

Esteves

Faria

Fernandes

Ferreira

Figueira

Fonseca

Freitas

Gago

Garcia

Gomes

Gonçalves

Guedes

Guerreiro

Henriques

Leal

Leitão

Lemos

Lima

Lopes

Lourenço

Machado

Marques

Matos

Melo

Mendes

Mendonça

Meneses

Monteiro

Morais

Moutinho

Neto

Nobre

Nogueira

Nunes

Oliveira

Pacheco

Pais

Pedroso

Peixoto

Pereira

Peres

Pires

Pessoa

Pimentel

Pinheiro

Pinto

Portugal

Queiroz/Queirós

Ramires

Ramos

Rebelo

Reis

Ribeiro

Rocha

Rodrigues

Romeiro

Saldanha

Salgado

Sampaio

Santiago

Sardinha

Semedo

Sequeira

Silva

Silveira

Simões

Soares

Sousa

Tavares

Taveira

Teixeira

Torres

Valente

Vasconcelos

Vasques

Vaz

Veloso

Vieira

Vilarinho

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