Any Portuguese ancestors? Here is a quick look at naming conventions for Portugal and Brazil (which uses Portuguese as a national language).
There are usually two surnames, the mother’s paternal and father’s paternal surname, such as Luiz João Pazos Silva. Maternal surnames are placed before paternal surnames. Family names may be written separately or joined by the conjunction ‘e’ meaning and. The name could read Joana Filipa Santos Cunha or Joana FilipaSantos e Cunha. .
(See our previous post on Italian naming conventions.)
Any French ancestors? Here is a quick look at French naming conventions.
Names are usually set up as the first given name, which may have hyphenated first name, then a middle given name or names, and, finally, the surname. An example would be Philippe Alain Laurent or Jean-Luc Alain Laurent. The first instance is first name, middle name, surname, while the second instance shows the first two given names are hyphenated, then the middle name, and the surname.
French surnames are traditionally paternal, but children may take their mother’s family name instead. Some parents may give their children a hyphenated surname that contains the surname of both the mother and father (e.g. Philippe Alain Laurent-Martin) where Laurent is the father’s surname and Martin is the mother’s maiden surname.
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