AZORES-L Archives

Archiver > AZORES > 2001-08 > 0996860043


From: Doug da Rocha Holmes <>
Subject: Re: [AZORES-L] Names: Abreu Bettencourt Bezerra and Rodrigues
Date: Fri, 03 Aug 2001 10:34:03 -0700
In-Reply-To: <20010803164135.99142.qmail@web11008.mail.yahoo.com>


Cara Eugenia,

I have these corrections for you:

At 09:41 AM 8/3/2001 , Eugenia Paine Rapasky wrote:
>
>Abreu -
>
> Abreu, da Abreu, de Abreu, d'Abreu - from Evreaux, France
>The surname is a toponymics (Surnames indicating a location). In the
>12th century, the noble classes are using a location to help identify
>people.
> Information is from:
>Doug da Rocha Holmes, "NAMING TRADITIONS, SURNAME TYPES", OProgresso,
>Dece. 1995, Vol. 14, No. 4, page 9.


I think "da Abreu" is a mistake. At least, I don't remember writing that.

I think I read recently from Luis KW that the origin of Abreu coming from Evreaux is a myth, even though many or most nobility books do mention Evreaux. You can ask Luis KW about that.


>Bezerra -
>
> Bezerra (calf), raised cattle
>Surnames based on occupation, related to an animal.
> Information is from:
>Doug da Rocha Holmes, "NAMING TRADITIONS, SURNAME TYPES", OProgresso,
>Dece. 1995, Vol. 14, No. 4, page 9
>
> Bezerra surname - common in Faial and Pico
> Information is from:
>Doug da Rocha Holmes, SURNAME ORGINS, 1995, page 3.

Bezerra is one of the names in the category (surname types) of a nickname or "alcunha" and I only speculated that someone who first used that as a name might have been raising cattle. I don't know if that is correct, but one can imagine it and I doubt anyone can categorically refute it as a fact.

I don't recall saying Faial is where you can commonly find Bezerra, but I might have said it was sometimes found there. It certainly isn't common anywhere outside of Pico when referring to the Azores.


> Rodrigues in Portuguese, Rodgers in American as surnames
> Information is from:
>Doug da Rocha Holmes, "NAMING TRADITIONS, SURNAME TYPES", OProgresso,

>Dece. 1995, Vol. 14, No. 4, page 10.

"American" should be changed to "English" or "America" since "American" is not a language. I noticed this in one or two of your previous postings on names.



> Rodrigues - change to Casquilho.
>Family name.
...
> Information is from the book:
>James H. Guill, A HISTORY OF THE AZORES ISLANDS, Golden Shield
>International, Vol. 5, 1993, page 53, 56, 57, 193, 231.

Just a comment, one of these Rodrigues Casquilho branches appears in the 19th century records of S.Roque do Pico. One of their descendants lives in the Sacramento region.

>
>Eugenia
>Concord, CA, USA


Thanks again for your kind attention to all my articles on Portuguese names.

Doug da Rocha Holmes
www.dholmes.com/articles.html

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