Sephardic-Portuguese family names are a living record of Jewish history. Each name holds a story — of a city, a profession, a period, or an expulsion.
What Is a Sephardic Name?
Sephardic surnames are names carried by the Jews of Spain and Portugal into exile after 1492. Many names are geographical — named after the city of origin. Others are professional, religious, or poetic.
Common Names and Their History
Geographical Names
- Toledano / Toledo — Named after Toledo, an important Jewish center in Spain
- Saragossi / Zaragoza — Named after Zaragoza, Spain
- Navarro — Named after Navarre, a kingdom in northern Spain
- Castiel / Castillo — Named after Castile
- Lisboa / Lisbona — Named after Lisbon
- Portela / Portugal — Named after Portugal
- Seville / Sevilha — Named after Seville
- Cordovero — Named after Cordoba (Rabbi Moses Cordovero)
Religious and Spiritual Names
- Cohen / Coen / Cohn — From the Kohanim, the priestly tribe
- Levy / Levi — From the Levites
- Israel / Israelí — National identity
- Sason / Sasson — Joy and happiness in Hebrew
- Benveniste — “Welcome” in Latin, a blessing name
Arabic and Berber Names
Some Sephardic names originate from the period of Muslim rule on the Iberian Peninsula:
- Abravanel / Abarbanel — From Arabic, a great family
- Benoliel — Son of God, of Berber origin
- Azoulay / Azulay — Of Berber-Moroccan origin
- Benchimol — Son of Samuel, in Berber
Professional Names
- Ferreira — Blacksmith, from Latin origin
- Carvalho — Oak forest, forest manager
- Medina — City in Arabic (also a professional name)
How to Know If My Name Is Sephardic?
The Portuguese government (through the Lisbon and Porto communities) publishes recognized name lists. Your name may appear on the list even if its spelling changed over the generations.
Contact us for assistance with genealogical research. We maintain an extensive name database and can help you trace your roots.
Our Name Database
Our association maintains a Sephardic-Portuguese name database containing thousands of family names traced between Israel and Portugal. The database was built from Inquisition archives, census records, and communal documents from the 15th to 19th centuries.