Sousas

Sousas is a name used in Portuguese-speaking regions to refer to both a surname and a geographic toponym. In onomastics, it is commonly treated as a variant or derivative of Sousa, a well-established Portuguese surname and place-name. The form Sousas appears in various Lusophone contexts as a plural or patronymic derivative, reflecting the common practice of forming family or place names from the root Sousa.

The root Sousa originates from the Sousa River in the northwest Iberian Peninsula, a feature associated with the Minho region in Portugal and Galicia in Spain. The derivative form Sousas can arise in naming practices to indicate lineage, ownership, or association with that geographic source. In practice, Sousas is primarily encountered as a surname but can also function as a placename element in certain Brazilian and Portuguese localities, typically named after families bearing the Sousa/Sousa surname.

Usage and distribution: As a surname, Sousas is less common than Sousa but is found in Brazilian and Portuguese records, often within extended family networks. In toponymy, Sousas may appear in the names of districts, neighborhoods, or localities where historical settlement or landholding was linked to families with the Sousa/Sousa heritage. Because Sousa is the more prevalent form, Sousas tends to be rarer and is most frequently encountered in genealogical or local historical sources.

See also: Sousa.