It's all correct. The preposition "de" doesn't mean royalty or aristocracy, although almost all the Middle Ages surnames of noble families usually has "de", mainly relating that family to its place of origin. "De Sousa" = "from the village of Sousa". Later, the use of surnames generallized and even poor people adopted these surnames. We don't capitalized de/do/da, and they often are dropped.
My mother's surname is "de Medeiros", but she has many relatives that are just "Medeiros", without "de". JS Lopes ________________________________ De: Cheri Mello <gfsche...@gmail.com> Para: azores@googlegroups.com Enviadas: Sexta-feira, 26 de Fevereiro de 2010 20:23:55 Assunto: Re: Res: [AZORES-Genealogy] Re: "de" or "da" As a kid, I was told something about De vs de being royalty. That's not the way Portuguese grammar works. "de" basically means "of." "da" would be the equivalent of the English contraction "of the" (with the next word ending in "a" signifying feminine). "da musica" (of the music - music ends in "a" so you use da). "do" would be the equivalent of the English contraction "of the" (with the next word ending in "o" signifying masculine). "do carro" (of the car - car ends in "o" so you use do). d' is one of those things where you put the apostrophe when you're missing a letter. In English, that would be in words such as "don't." The d' in Portuguese is either de da or do, depending on the next word. "di" I think is Italian. I've had a couple of Italian kids in my class and I seem to remember their names being Di Whatever. de, da, do in Portuguese isn't capitalized. We don't capitalize prepositions in English and they don't seem to do it in Portuguese. However, when someone who is not born in the U.S. (and possibly Canada) comes into the new country and says that their last name is "da Costa" the person (who was schooled English to capital last names) writes Da Costa because they were taught to capitalize last names. I don't have my Portuguese grammar books handy, so I'm remembering this off the top of my head. The native speakers will be able to correct what I'm not remembering correctly. Cheri Mello Listowner, Azores-Gen Researching: Vila Franca, Ponta Garca, Ribeira Quente, Ribeira das Tainhas, Achada -- To unsubscribe from this group, send email to azores+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. Follow the confirmation directions when they arrive. For more options, such as changing to List, Digest, Abridged, or No Mail (vacation) mode, log into your Google account and visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Azores. Click in the blue area on the right that says "Join this group" and it will take you to "Edit my membership." ____________________________________________________________________________________ Veja quais são os assuntos do momento no Yahoo! +Buscados http://br.maisbuscados.yahoo.com -- To unsubscribe from this group, send email to azores+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. Follow the confirmation directions when they arrive. For more options, such as changing to List, Digest, Abridged, or No Mail (vacation) mode, log into your Google account and visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Azores. Click in the blue area on the right that says "Join this group" and it will take you to "Edit my membership."
