{"id":564407,"date":"2025-10-22T15:54:03","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T18:54:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/?p=564407"},"modified":"2025-10-22T15:54:03","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T18:54:03","slug":"proper-names-such-as-those-of-people-and-places-inspire-studies-in-onomastics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/proper-names-such-as-those-of-people-and-places-inspire-studies-in-onomastics\/","title":{"rendered":"Proper names, such as those of people and places, inspire studies in onomastics"},"content":{"rendered":"

The names Francinaldo and Florisvalda share more than just their initial letter. \u201cThese are both typically Brazilian names, created by fusing two elements taken from traditional names,\u201d explains Juliana Soledade, a professor at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA) and author of the book Os brasileiros e seus nomes: Teoria e hist\u00f3ria da antropon\u00edmia no Brasil<\/em> (Brazilians and their names: Theory and history of anthroponymics in Brazil; Pontes Editores, 2024). \u201cBrazil has developed unique naming practices that differ sharply from, say, the Portuguese system, where names must be selected from an official name list controlled by the government. Unfortunately, these distinctly Brazilian names are often stigmatized and frowned upon\u2014yet they perfectly reflect the creativity of Brazilian culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soledade notes that Brazilian naming practices have borrowed from the dithematic structure of Germanic names, inherited via Portuguese colonizers. \u201cTypically, Germanic names are built by combining two common words to create a new, third meaning. Take Edward, for instance, formed from ead<\/em> (\u2018wealth, happiness\u2019) and weard<\/em> (\u2018guardian, ward\u2019), yielding \u2018guardian of wealth.\u2019 Or Bernard, from ber<\/em> (\u2018bear\u2019) and hard<\/em> (\u2018strong, hardy\u2019), meaning something like \u2018strong bear\u2019 or \u2018strong as a bear,\u2019\u201d Soledade explains. \u201cIn Brazil, people started creating new combinations with name fragments. So, for example, Jos\u00e9, a Hebrew name, merges with naldo<\/em>, a Germanic-derived suffix, to form Josenaldo\u2014though in this case, there\u2019s no clear meaning we can infer from the combination.\u201d<\/p>\n

Until the late nineteenth century, most given names officially used in Brazil followed a Luso-Judeo-Christian tradition, according to Soledade. This began to shift with the passage of Decree no. 9,886, as part of the 1888 Constitution, which stripped the Catholic Church of its exclusive control over birth, marriage, and death certificates. \u201cAnother key moment was the abolition of slavery. Freed individuals sought to break away from the names associated with the white elite, creating new naming possibilities,\u201d says Soledade. She is currently leading the development of the Novo dicion\u00e1rio de nomes em uso no Brasil<\/em> (New dictionary of names in use in Brazil), a national project she launched in 2017 while teaching at the University of Bras\u00edlia (UnB).<\/p>\n

\"\"Sandra J\u00e1vera<\/span><\/p>\n

Soledade\u2019s research falls within the field of onomastics, the branch of linguistics concerned with the study of proper names\u2014especially personal names (anthroponymics) and place names (toponymics). \u201cIt\u2019s a highly interdisciplinary field, drawing on law, history, sociology, psychology, and geography,\u201d adds Patricia Carvalhinhos of the School of Philosophy, Languages and Literature, and Humanities at the University of S\u00e3o Paulo (FFLCH-USP).<\/p>\n

According to Carvalhinhos, onomastics established itself as a formal academic discipline in the nineteenth century, led by French historian and archivist Auguste Longnon (1844\u20131911). \u201cBut debates about names go back to Antiquity. Even Plato mused about the nature of names, as seen in the dialogue Cratylus<\/em>,\u201d she says. One of the early pioneers in the Portuguese language was the Lusitanian philologist Jos\u00e9 Leite de Vasconcelos (1858\u20131941), best known for his work Antropon\u00edmia portuguesa<\/em> (Portuguese anthroponymics; 1928). In Brazil, one of the seminal works is Antenor Nascentes\u2019s (1886\u20131972) Dicion\u00e1rio etimol\u00f3gico da l\u00edngua portuguesa<\/em> (Etymological dictionary of the Portuguese language; 1952), on the origins of proper names.<\/p>\n

Within academia, the first significant studies on the subject in Brazil were published in the early twentieth century. A notable example is the work of Pl\u00ednio Ayrosa (1895\u20131961), who held the chair of Ethnography and Tupi-Guarani Language at the University of S\u00e3o Paulo (USP). He authored titles like Termos tupis no portugu\u00eas do Brasil<\/em> (Tupi terms in Brazilian Portuguese; 1937). \u201cToponymics was one of the methods he used to better understand Indigenous languages,\u201d notes Carvalhinhos. But the field would only gain traction in Brazil in the 1990s, with the work of scholars like Maria Vicentina de Paula do Amaral Dick (1936\u20132024), also at USP. \u201cIn her doctoral dissertation, defended in 1980 and published in 1992, she adapted to the Brazilian context a methodology based on semantic fields\u2014a conceptual approach that had been applied internationally since the 1950s,\u201d says Carvalhinhos. \u201cPut simply, this method involves breaking down reality into categories to better grasp its particularities. For example, you might classify Brazilian city names into two broad groups: those inspired by nature and those based on human-made artifacts. From there, you can create subcategories and so on.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Parkat\u00eaj\u00ea people, in southeastern Par\u00e1, call the Tocantins River Pyti, which means \u201clots of annatto.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Eduardo Amaral, from the School of Languages and Literature at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), believes there is still significant ground to cover in this field in Brazil\u2014especially in anthroponymics. Together with M\u00e1rcia Seide, of the State University of Western Paran\u00e1 (UNIOESTE), he cofounded the Onomastic Observatory (O-Onoma) in 2020, a national network for cross-institutional research exchange and collaboration. Last year, the group\u2014which includes scholars from over 20 Brazilian universities\u2014released the book Os nomes pr\u00f3prios no Brasil: Contribui\u00e7\u00f5es do Observat\u00f3rio Onom\u00e1stico (O-Onoma)<\/em> (Proper names in Brazil: Contributions from the Onomastic Observatory [O-Onoma]), published by Pontes Editores.<\/p>\n

Trained in both law and linguistics, Amaral has researched various categories of proper names, with support from the Minas Gerais State Research Foundation (FAPEMIG). One of these categories is chosen names, officially recognized in Brazil by Decree no. 8,727, enacted in 2016. This decree provides the right for people to use a name in public settings that reflects their gender identity, even if it differs from the one on their civil documents. \u201cChosen names\u2014or the names that transgender or nonbinary individuals prefer to go by\u2014began to receive official recognition in Brazil in the early 2000s,\u201d Amaral explains. \u201cThey were first adopted in the healthcare system, helping to avoid awkward or discriminatory situations for LGBT+ people in hospitals and other public facilities. Later, they expanded into education, at universities and schools.\u201d Amaral adds, \u201cUnfortunately, unlike countries such as Spain and Argentina, Brazil doesn\u2019t yet have a permanent law providing this right. Remember, a federal decree can be revoked by a presidential signature at any time.\u201d<\/p>\n

With funding from FAPESP, Let\u00edcia Rodrigues explored the history and use of Portuguese surnames in Brazil in a doctoral dissertation defended in 2024 at FFLCH-USP. She based her research on records from the Br\u00e1s Immigrant Hostel in S\u00e3o Paulo, covering arrivals between 1887 and 1889, and on passports from Portuguese emigrants who traveled to Brazil between 1888 and 1890\u2014documents she accessed while serving as a visiting scholar at the University of Coimbra in Portugal. She also consulted the list of candidates who passed the first round of the FUVEST university entrance exam in 2017.<\/p>\n

Altogether, Rodrigues compiled about 50,000 surnames, but narrowed her focused analysis to around 1,700 entries. \u201cThe difference in numbers is mainly because many surnames appear in multiple spelling variants\u2014as with \u201cQueir\u00f3s\u201d and \u201cQueiroz,\u201d Rodrigues explains. She is currently working on an etymological onomastic dictionary of Portuguese surnames in use in Brazil.<\/p>\n

\"\"Sandra J\u00e1vera<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSome surnames are tied to nature, like Pereira (\u2018pear tree\u2019) and Oliveira (\u2018olive tree\u2019), while others have religious origins, such as Trindade (\u2018Trinity\u2019) and Ros\u00e1rio (\u2018Rosary\u2019). There are also animal-based names, like Cordeiro (\u2018lamb\u2019), Coelho (\u2018rabbit\u2019), and Sardinha (\u2018sardine\u2019), and trade names such as Ferreiro (\u2018blacksmith\u2019), Machado (\u2018axe\u2019), and Monteiro (\u2018mountain man\u2019),\u201d she says. \u201cLacerda comes from the Spanish expression la cerda<\/em>, referring to a tuft of bristly hair that would stick out of a shirt at chest level, while Pestana describes a person with long eyelashes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since completing her linguistics degree in 2014 at the Federal University of Par\u00e1 (UFPA), Tereza Tayn\u00e1 Coutinho Lopes has been investigating the language and cultural practices of the Parkat\u00eaj\u00ea people, an Indigenous community in southeastern Par\u00e1. \u201cIn their naming convention, the name-giver selects a personal trait\u2014either positive or negative\u2014from their own character and uses it as the basis for the new name,\u201d explains Lopes, now a professor at the Federal Institute of Education, Science, and Technology of Par\u00e1 (IFPA). One example is the name Kokupati, meaning \u201cfear of water.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s a personal name passed down by a name-giver known for their own fear of water\u2014a trait meant to be remembered by future generations through the name itself,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

In her doctoral dissertation, completed in 2022 within the Graduate Program in Language and Literature at the Federal University of Par\u00e1 (UFPA), Lopes investigated the place-naming traditions (toponymics) of the Parkat\u00eaj\u00ea people. \u201cSome of these names are purely descriptive,\u201d she explains. \u201cFor instance, the village Kojakati means \u2018white or clear water,\u2019 a reference to the characteristics of a nearby stream.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Sandra J\u00e1vera<\/span><\/p>\n

Other names capture elements of Parkat\u00eaj\u00ea culture. \u201cThe Parkat\u00eaj\u00ea call the Tocantins River Pyti, which means \u2018a lot of annatto,\u2019\u201d Lopes says. \u201cThis is linked to a local creationist myth. According to the story, when the Indigenous people first inhabited the region, they found abundant annatto seeds. They crushed the seeds and threw them into the river, staining its waters. The river thus took on the color of annatto, which plays an important role in Parkat\u00eaj\u00ea culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lopes is a member of the UFPA research group Functional-Descriptive Studies of Parkat\u00eaj\u00ea and Other Minority Languages, which deals, among other issues, with the preservation of the personal names and place names of Brazil\u2019s Indigenous peoples. \u201cAmong the Parkat\u00eaj\u00ea, younger generations are increasingly struggling to preserve their traditional language,\u201d Lopes notes. \u201cWith Portuguese as Brazil\u2019s dominant language, it\u2019s mainly the elders who still carry the ancestral knowledge of the people\u2019s myths, cultural practices, and native language fluency.\u201d<\/p>\n

Place names play an important role in shaping collective memory, but in recent years, Brazil\u2019s major cities have seen naming rights disrupt this heritage. \u201cNaming rights attach a commercial brand\u2019s name to a public space, like a soccer stadium or a subway station,\u201d explains Martin Jayo, a professor at the School of Arts, Sciences, and Humanities (EACH) at the University of S\u00e3o Paulo (USP) and coauthor of a study on the topic.<\/p>\n

Last year, S\u00e3o Paulo\u2019s municipal government and a multinational food and beverage company were on the verge of closing a naming rights deal for Largo da Batata, a town square in the city\u2019s west side. The idea was to temporarily add the name of one of the company\u2019s potato chip brands to the square\u2019s name. However, after public backlash, the city withdrew from the deal. \u201cWe care for our physical landmarks\u2014we protect historic buildings\u2014but in Brazil, names themselves are a kind of cultural heritage we tend to ignore,\u201d Jayo points out.<\/p>\n

The story above was published with the title “In every sense<\/strong>” in issue in issue 349 of march\/2025.<\/p>\n

Project
\n<\/strong>Immigration journeys:<\/em> Surnames that tell stories<\/em> (n\u00ba 19\/20331-8<\/a>); Grant Mechanism<\/strong> Doctoral Fellowship; Supervisor <\/strong>M\u00e1rio Eduardo Viaro (USP); Beneficiary <\/strong>Leticia Santos Rodrigues; Investment <\/strong>R$201,057.04.<\/p>\n

Scientific articles<\/strong>
\nCARVALHINHOS, P. e LIMA, A. T. Topon\u00edmia, teoria e m\u00e9todo. Retratos de tradi\u00e7\u00e3o e inova\u00e7\u00e3o<\/a>. Revista Linha D\u2019\u00c1gua<\/strong>, Vol. 36, pp. 1\u201320. 2023.
\nLOPES, T. T. C. & FERREIRA, M. de N. O. L\u00edngua, identidade e cultura: Aspectos sem\u00e2nticos da topon\u00edmia Parkat\u00eaj\u00ea (Timbira)<\/a>. EntreLetras<\/strong>, no. 15, pp. 251\u201368. 2024.
\nJAYO, M. & LIMA, A. T. Comodifica\u00e7\u00e3o topon\u00edmica e a cidade neoliberal: Sobre a venda de direitos de nomea\u00e7\u00e3o (naming rights) das esta\u00e7\u00f5es do metr\u00f4 de S\u00e3o Paulo<\/a>. Dom\u00ednios de Lingu@gem<\/strong>, Uberl\u00e2ndia, Vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 347\u201370. 2021.<\/p>\n

Book
\n<\/strong>AMARAL, E. T. R. et al<\/em>. Os nomes pr\u00f3prios no Brasil: Contribui\u00e7\u00f5es do Observat\u00f3rio Onom\u00e1stico (O-Onoma)<\/strong>. Campinas: Pontes Editores, 2024.
\nSOLEDADE, J. O brasileiro e seus nomes: Teoria e hist\u00f3ria da antropon\u00edmia no Brasil<\/strong>. Campinas: Pontes Editores, 2024.
\nSOLEDADE, J. & SIM\u00d5ES NETO, N. A. (Eds.) Nomes pr\u00f3prios: Abordagens lingu\u00edsticas<\/strong>. Salvador: EDUFBA, 2021.<\/p>\n

Book chapter
\n<\/strong>CARVALHINHOS, P.\u00a0\u201cOnomastics and Toponomastics.” In: KABATEK, J. & WALL, A. (Ed.). Manual of Brazilian Portuguese Linguistics. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2022, vol. 21, pp. 513\u201352.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Interdisciplinary field touches on knowledge ranging from law to psychology","protected":false},"author":774,"featured_media":564416,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[165],"tags":[241,390,244],"coauthors":[5325],"class_list":["post-564407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-humanities","tag-history","tag-law","tag-linguistics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/774"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564407"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":564434,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564407\/revisions\/564434"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564407"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=564407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}