A typical Portuguese name is composed of one or two given names, and two family names. The last surname is usually the father's family surname and the first surname is the mother's family surname, however, the order of the surnames can be reversed and it is common to find people with three or four surnames.
For practicality, usually only the last surname is used in formal greetings or in scientific papers indexing, but in a list of persons, the f...
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A typical Portuguese name is composed of one or two given names, and two family names. The last surname is usually the father's family surname and the first surname is the mother's family surname, however, the order of the surnames can be reversed and it is common to find people with three or four surnames.
For practicality, usually only the last surname is used in formal greetings or in scientific papers indexing, but in a list of persons, the first given name, not the surname, is used for alphasorting. A married woman may add her husband's last surname(s) to the end of her own name, but this is not mandatory. The same may happen with men, though this is extremely rare.
The Portuguese naming system is quite flexible. The law establishes the need for a child to have at least one given name and one last name (surname) from one of the parents, although having only one last name is now very rare. The law also establishes the maximum number of names allowed: up to two given names and four...
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