Sousa (surname)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the noble family, see House of Sousa.
Sousa
Coat of arms of Luís de Sousa.svg
Coat of arms of Cardinal Luís de Sousa
Origin
Meaningtoponymic (from the Sousa River)
Region of originPortugal
Other names
Variant form(s)de Sousa, Souza, de Souza, D'Souza

Sousa (/ˈsuːzə/, Portuguese: [ˈsouzɐ]), Souza, de Sousa (literally, from Sousa), de Souza or D'Souza is a common Portuguese-language surname, especially in Portugal, Brazil, East Timor, India (among Catholics in Goa, Bombay, and Mangalore), and Galicia.[1] In Africa, the name is common in former Portuguese colonies, especially among people who have some Portuguese and Brazilian roots in Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Angola, São Tomé and Príncipe, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, and Mozambique.

Etymology and history[]

The name comes from the Sousa River in northern Portugal, and the first man who used the surname was the noble of Visigoth origin Egas Gomes de Sousa.[citation needed] Sometimes the spelling is in the archaic form Souza or de Souza, which has occasionally been changed to D'Souza. The Spanish equivalent of this surname is Sosa and it was brought to Galicia (Spain) by the Portuguese.

During the colonial era, the Portuguese built forts along Brazilian and West African coastal areas for trade, many of which were later used for the slave trade. They also had children with local women, and the children were given their fathers' last names.

Some Afro-Brazilians who returned to Africa also carry this last name. Among those are the Tabom people, descendants of Francisco Félix de Sousa, a white Portuguese-Brazilian man from Salvador, Bahia, in Brazil, once the richest man in West Africa due to his involvement in its slave trade.[citation needed]

Notable people sharing a variation of the surname Sousa[]

Scientists, academics and technologists[]

  • Gypsyamber D'Souza, American epidemiologist
  • Marcelo Damy de Souza Santos (1914–2009), Brazilian physicist
  • Teotonio R. de Souza (1947–2019), Indian historian
  • Raissa D'Souza (born 1969), American theoretical physicist and computer scientist
  • Francisco D'Souza (born 1968), Indian American entrepreneur and businessman
  • Ronald Bon de Sousa Pernes (born 1940), Canadian philosopher

Visual artists[]

Actors and filmmakers[]

Entrepreneurs[]

Musicians, singers and composers[]

Writers and journalists[]

Political figures[]

Athletes[]

Religious figures[]

Fictional characters[]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "SOUSA - Cartografía dos apelidos de Galicia".
Retrieved from ""