Earlier spellings Béthencourt | Place of origin Normandy | |
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Current region Azores, Brazil, Canary Islands, France, Madeira Estate Bettencourt Palace
Madre de Deus Manor Name origin and meaning Toponymic name meaning Betten's Estate | ||
Bettencourt is surname and noble family of Norman origin. The head of the family in the 14th century, Jean de Béthencourt, organized an expedition to conquer the Canary Islands, resulting in his being made King of the Canary Islands. Though the royal Canary title would be short lived, it allowed the family to firmly establish itself afterwards in the Azores and Madeira islands. The family is one of the most expansive and established families of the Portuguese nobility.
Contents
- Variants of the name
- Family history
- Bettencourt
- Betancourt
- Bethancourt
- Bittencourt
- Other variants
- Legal cases
- Other
- References
Through the expansion of the Portuguese Empire and Spanish Crown, the family and name spread across the world, mainly throughout Spanish America, Portuguese America, and Portuguese Africa.
Variants of the name
Though the spelling Bettencourt is the most widely used and standardized spelling of the family, both in Portuguese and French, other spellings of the name have arisen, mainly in Spanish. Some of these spellings include: Bettencour, Bethancourt/Betancourt, Béthencourt, Bitencourt/Bittencourt, Betancur, Betancurt, Betancurth, Betancor, Bitancurt, Betancurt, and Betencur
Family history
Bettencourt and Bethencourt are originally place-names in Northern France. The place-name element -court (courtyard, courtyard of a farm, farm) is typical of the French provinces, where the Frankish settlements formed an important part of the local population. It translated the Old Low Franconian word *hof "courtyard", "courtyard of a farm", "farm" (Dutch, Old English hof, German Hof)
Bettencourt / Bethencourt corresponds with Bettenhoffen, Bettenhof or Bettenhoven found in Alsace, Germany or Flanders.
The first part Betten- is the Germanic personal name (owner's name) Betto.
The surname Bettencourt / Bethencourt with various spellings extended throughout Spain, Portugal and their colonies, after the Norman-French explorer Jean de Béthencourt, who conquered the Canary Islands for Spain and received the title King of the Canary Islands.
To this day, Betancourt and other forms of his surname are quite frequent among Canary Islanders and people of Canary Islander descent, in spite of his death without issue, thanks to his nephew Maciot de Béthencourt who succeeded him as King of the islands.
Examples include former Colombian president Belisario Betancur, former Venezuelan president Rómulo Betancourt, and Hermano Pedro de San José de Betancurt, a saint of the Roman Catholic Church. Other modern notables in recent news are Venezuelan baseball player Rafael Betancourt, Azorean (Portuguese) born American musician Nuno Bettencourt, Colombian-French activist/politician Ingrid Betancourt.