In some cases the women were named after their parish: a girl named Maria,
born in the parish of Nossa Senhora da Assunção, would be Maria da Assunção.
And maybe in some cases it could be due to the expression used when people
asked for the sex of the baby to a pregnant woman, being the answers "um
ainda bem" ("good!", or thank goodness!") for a baby boy (meaning that it
was an advantage for the lavoura's and hard work), or "um Deus o deu"
("given by God", or "God's will) for a baby girl (no hard work, no
lavoura), and being a "Deus o deu", they would have a religious name.
But that's just my theory. Anyone else heard about these expressions? :)
2014-02-28 14:12 GMT+00:00 Rodney Figueiredo <[email protected]>:
> It was usually women showing their devotion to the Virgin Mary. With so
> many women named Maria, these religious names helped distinguish them from
> one another. It seems everyone wanted to show religious devotion. These
> weren't necessarily surnames in the modern sense, but just how the women
> were known during those times. In some cases, these became de-facto
> surnames found in modern families of Portuguese descent. I believe that
> their parents chose the name most of the time, but I've also found some
> women would change their name over the course of their life so that it
> wasn't just Maria da Conceição, but sometimes also Maria de Jesus in other
> records.
>
>
> On Friday, February 28, 2014 6:21:14 AM UTC-5, carmen furtado wrote:
>>
>> Why do just women have names with "da Conceição," "de Jesús," "do
>> Coração," etc.?
>>
>> I noticed that these names were not on their baptismal records.
>>
>> Were they First Communion or Confirmation names?
>>
>> Did they or their parents chose the names?
>>
>> Thanks.
>>
>> Carmen
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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