Brazilian Name Generator

What makes a name Brazilian

Brazil shares a language with Portugal and a long list of saints' names, but it follows its own naming habits. The law allows nearly any name that is not obscene or ridiculous, so parents invent, blend and respell more than they do in Portugal. Some combine the parents' names, some add foreign-sounding endings, and some borrow from immigrants: Italian, German, Japanese and Arab families all left surnames like Rossi, Schmidt, Nakamura and Haddad in the mix. The generator uses a Portuguese-derived core and adds a few of these.

Spelling gives away the country. Brazilians write Antônio and Sônia with a circumflex where Portugal writes António and Sónia, and Luiz is far more common in Brazil than Luís. The name Thiago, with its th, is a Brazilian look. Pronunciation shifts too: in many Brazilian accents the d in Diogo and the t in Tiago are softened to a j and a ch sound.

The surname order is given name, then usually mother's surname, then father's, and the father's is the one people go by. So Ana Clara Souza Lima is Ana Clara Lima to almost everyone. Silva, Santos and Oliveira are the three most common surnames by a wide margin, and Silva alone is carried by about two percent of the population, a legacy that includes many freed enslaved people who took surnames from those who had held them.

Nicknames are half the vocabulary

Brazilians shorten everything, and the result is often used in place of the real name. José is Zé, Francisco is Chico, Eduardo is Dudu, Maria Eduarda is Duda, Beatriz is Bia, Júlia is Ju, and Fernando is Nando. Add -inho or -inha for warmth and you get Pedrinho and Aninha. A character called by a full name every time sounds like a stranger.

The Tupi-inspired style draws on the Indigenous languages that gave Brazil place names and a smaller stock of first names. Iara is a water spirit of folklore, Jaci is the moon, Cauã is the hawk and Guaraci is the sun. Some came into use through a nineteenth-century novel, Iracema, whose name is an anagram of America.

Getting a Brazilian name right

• Use Brazilian spelling: Antônio and Sônia, not António and Sónia; Luiz more often than Luís; Thiago as well as Tiago.
• Give a Brazilian character a shortened name in casual scenes: Zé, Chico, Dudu, Duda, Bia or Ju. Save the full name for paperwork and formal introductions.
• Add a second surname for a formal document: mother's name first, father's last. The last one is the family name people use in daily life.
• For a character from São Paulo or the south, an Italian, German or Japanese surname such as Rossi, Schmidt or Nakamura is completely realistic.
• Match first names to age. Maria Eduarda, Heitor and Valentina suit the young, José Carlos and Sônia suit parents and grandparents.

Sources

• Portuguese name, Wikipedia