Souza
A Portuguese surname that originally points to a place name, most likely meaning “from Sousa.”
The #1,601 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 13,800 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Souza is the Portuguese spelling of a surname tied to the place name Sousa. In surname use, it typically meant someone who came from or belonged to that locality. The place name itself is commonly traced back to a pre-Roman or Latinized river or land-name basis, so the deeper root is older than medieval Portuguese.
History
The name is especially associated with Portugal and later spread widely through Portuguese-speaking communities, especially in Brazil and diaspora populations. Historical records often show both Sousa and Souza as spellings of the same surname, with Souza becoming a common alternative orthography outside Portugal. The excerpted sources also treat Souza as the Portuguese form underlying names in Iberian Jewish and Hispanic contexts.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Both Sousa and Souza survive as standard family-name spellings, and which one appears often depends more on region and spelling tradition than on a different original meaning.
From the historical record
“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, Belinfante, Continho, D'Oliveira, D'Ancona, Melhado, Cassuto, Querido, Pe- saro, De la Fuente, De Mnrcia, Morpurgo, Montezinos…”
— De Nederlandsche geslachtsnamen in oorsprong, geschiedenis en beteekenis