Cardoso
A Portuguese and Spanish surname most often linked to places or features where thistles grew.
The #3,197 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 27,313 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Cardoso is usually explained from the Romance word for a thistle or thistle-like plant, ultimately from Latin carduus, meaning "thistle." As a surname, it likely began as a habitational name for someone from a place called Cardoso, or as a descriptive name for a locality characterized by thistles. In Iberian surname history, names built from plant terms and place-names were common and often overlap.
History
The surname is strongly associated with Portugal and Spain and is also found widely in Portuguese-speaking communities abroad, especially in Brazil. It spread through Iberian migration to the Americas and elsewhere, which helps explain its presence in the modern United States. Some families may trace the name to specific villages or estates called Cardoso, while others inherited it as a regional surname.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The root behind Cardoso is the same thistle word family that appears in several other Romance languages and surnames.