Oliveira
A Portuguese surname meaning “olive tree,” originally a name for someone living near olive trees or an olive grove.
The #1,887 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 16,203 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Oliveira comes from Portuguese oliveira, meaning “olive tree” or “olive grove,” ultimately from Latin oliva, “olive.” As a surname, it most likely began as a topographic name for someone who lived by an olive tree, grove, or place associated with olives. In Portuguese and related Iberian naming practice, such nature-based surnames are common and often point to a local landscape feature rather than a family trade.
History
The name is especially common in Portugal and Brazil, where it has long been established as a normal hereditary surname. It also appears in older Iberian Jewish and Christian naming records, sometimes in forms like D’Oliveira or De Oliveira. In the modern period it spread widely through Portuguese emigration to the Americas and elsewhere.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
In Portuguese, oliveira is the standard word for an olive tree, so the surname is one of many Iberian names drawn straight from the natural world.
From the historical record
“1 Da Costa, Spinosa, Da Cunha, Carvalho, De Pinto, Diaz, Vaz, Santilhano, Pinedo, Pereira, Salvador, Ferares, Meiides, Chuma- ceiro, Del Oanho, Alveres Vega, Sequeira, Sarphati, Oliveira, Sal- zedo, De Lima (en verbasterd De Lieme), Capadose, De Leon, Cardozo, Caminha, D'Andrade, De Souza, De Miranda, Montanhes…”
— De Nederlandsche geslachtsnamen in oorsprong, geschiedenis en beteekenis