In regards the word "apelido" you will find natives in the Azores use it to also mean "alcunha" because that's exactly what I found on my two visits there. But when I inquired further, they did agree that nickname is better translated as alcunha.
In regards "da" and other surname prefixes, when I recorded my three children's births at the county recorder, I gave them as one of their two middle names "da Rocha." But since they don't use lower case in California birth records, it comes out as "... DA ROCHA HOLMES." I suppose someone unfamiliar with Portuguese names might ask me or my children about their surname "da" because they have a neighbor also with the surname "da." :-)
Doug da Rocha Holmes
Sacramento, California
Pico & Terceira Genealogist
916-550-1618
Sacramento, California
Pico & Terceira Genealogist
916-550-1618
---------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [AZORES-Genealogy] there is no "DE Something" surnames in
portuguese
From: Cheri Mello <gfsche...@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, March 31, 2014 4:59 pm
To: Azores Genealogy <azores@googlegroups.com>
Oh well.Ricardo C,That's what I mean. I think when the more recent people came to America and said their name was Da Silva or whatever, it is misunderstood and "Da" becomes part of their name. Then they had kids who went to school here and they grow up thinking that their name is really "DaSilva" and not Silva. That's when they look at me like I'm crazy.
I even had one guy tell me that his alcunha was "DaSilva" or whatever and his apelido was ______. I told him I was pretty sure he had the words alcunha and apelido switched around, but he said no, as he was a native speaker (born in California) and I wasn't. I'm a native speaker of English born in America, but that doesn't make me an authority on American names and nicknames.
Cheri
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