Many Portuguese surnames are derived from tree names. This happens in other languages too, such as Dutch and German. Below you can see a list of such names that I know of.
Names in parentheses are names of fruits and trees which, as far as I know, do not occur and last names.
Portuguese surname | Dutch surname | German surname | Latin tree name |
---|---|---|---|
Amendoeira 1) | (amandel(boom)) | Mandel | Prunus dulcis, Prunus amygdalus |
Carvalho | Van Eik, Van Eyk, Van Eijk, Eikman, Eijkelenboom etc. | Eichmann | Quercus |
Cedreiro | (ceder) | Cedrus | |
Moreira 2) (de: amoreira) | (moerbei) | Morelenbaum? 3) 4) (não de: Maulbeeren) | Morus |
(cereja) | Kerseboom, Kersseboom 5) | Kirschbaum, Kirshenbaum 6) | Cerasus |
Nogueira 7) 8) | Nootenboom, Noteboom, Nooteboom 9), Neuteboom etc. | Nussbaum | Juglans etc. etc. |
Oliveira | (olijfboom) | (Olivenbaum) | Oleaceae |
Pereira | Peereboom | (Birne) | Pyrus |
Salgueiro 10) 11) | Van der Wilgen | (Weiden) | Salix |
Teixeira (de: teixo) | Tax? 12) (venijnboom) | (Eibe) | Taxus baccata |
(tília) | Van de(r) Linde(n), Lindeman etc. | Lindenberg 13) (Linde) | Tilia |
Portuguese surname | Dutch surname | German surname | Latin tree name |
Copyright © 2009 by R. Harmsen.
Translated from
Portuguese
by R. Harmsen, 20 June 2009