Sousa (surname)

Etymology and history

The name was originally a toponym, denoting a river in Northern Portugal, from the Latin Saxa, meaning rocks. Sometimes the spelling is in the archaic form Souza or de Souza, which has occasionally been changed to D'Souza. The Spanish equivalent of this surname is Sosa.

During the colonial era, the Portuguese built forts along Brazilian and West African coastal areas for trade, many of which were later used for the slave trade. They also had children with local women, and the children were given their fathers' last names.

Some Afro-Brazilians who returned to Africa also carry this last name. Among those are the Tabom people, descendants of Francisco Félix de Sousa, a white man from Salvador, Bahia, in Brazil, once the richest man in West Africa due to his involvement in its slave trade.

A prominent family carrying the spelling "de Sousa" emigrated from Portugal to Goa during 1956, before moving to Hong Kong. This was followed by a third relocation in the mid-1960s, to Melbourne, Australia. The family donated their property in Hong Kong to Franciscan nuns.

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