Oliveira (surname)

Oliveira, de Oliveira and d'Oliveira are surnames found mainly in Brazil and Portugal, and to a lesser extent in former Portuguese and Spanish colonies. In Portuguese, 'de Oliveira' means 'of the olive tree' or 'from the olive tree'.

'de Oliveira' is also a Sephardic surname,[1] used prior to the start of the Portuguese Inquisition as a way for Jews to avoid prosecution and pressure under torture to become new Catholics. Since those people were targeted, and since Portugal had recently discovered Brazil (in 1500), many of those people fled to Brazil and other colonies of Portugal.

Similar names in other languages include the Italian Olivetti and Oliveto.

Origin of the surname

The surname identifies this family with the olive tree and the symbolic characteristics of the tree. On the coats of arms where it appears, it is the symbol of peace, of victory, of fame and immortal glory. In archaic Portuguese we find the register of surnames with variations of their spelling, such as Olveira and Ulveira. By the time of King Diniz I, king of Portugal in 1281, Oliveira was already "an old, illustrious and honorable family", as the king's books of Inquisitions show.

'Oliveira' is classified in the genealogical-Jewish study as of proven Jewish origin. Before the Inquisition the 'de Oliveira' were also in Spain. Before the Islamists conquered the Iberian peninsula it was called ‘ha-Levi’ or ‘ha-Itshari'. De Oliveira who settled in Portugal, Galicia and Spain, adopted a translated form of their family name to disguise their Judean origin. According to USP historian Anita Novinsky, one in three Portuguese who arrived in Brazil in the first decades of the 16th century were new Christians, and well over 2 million arrived during the entire 16th century. The ‘de Oliveira’ and their cousins Benveniste and Antunes arrived largely and concentrated mainly in the Northeast Region and Minas Gerais State in southeast Brazil.

The chronicles of the time attest to the presence of Levi, Levy and de Oliveira families in large numbers in colonial Brazil. Rabbi Abraham Benveniste who was born in 1433, in the city of Soria, in the province of Cáceres, in the Kingdom of Spain adopted the 'De Oliveira' family name in Portugal. He was a direct descendant of Rabbi Zerahiá ben-Its'haq ha-Levi and Gerona, who lived in the 12th century and was called ha-Its'hari, or Its'hari, because his genealogy goes to the children of Its'har, who was uncle of the prophet Moshe Rabenu. 'De Oliveira' became internally among Judeans of the Diaspora the family name to be used exclusively by Judeans who could still trace and prove their genealogy to the tribe of Levy.

People with the surname

General

Brazilian

Other nationalities

Fictional characters

References
  1. Mario J.Saban (1990). Judíos Conversos. Editorial Distal. ISBN 9509495204.

“Marranos and the Inquisition on the Gold Route in Minas Gerais, Brazil” in The Jews and the Expansion of Europa to the West, 1450–1800″ New York/Oxford: Bergham Books, Oxford, 2001, pp. 215–241.

Novinsky, Anita, Prisioneiros Brasileiros na Inquisição, Rio de Janeiro: Expressão e Cultura, 2001.

Salvador, J. Gonçalves. Os cristãos-Novos em Minas Gerais durante o Ciclo do Ouro. São Paulo, Pioneira, 1992.

Novinski, Anita. Inquisição, Inventários de Bens Confiscados a Cristãos-Novos no Brasil – século XVIII. Lisboa: Imprensa Nacional/Casa da Moeda, 1978, pp. 223–224.

Inquisição de Lisboa nº 6.515, Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, manuscrito. Veja BROMBERG, Raquel Mizrahi. A Inquisição no Brasil: Um capitão–mór judaisante. São Paulo: Ed. Centro Estudos Judaicos, USP, 1984.

Sobre Manoel Nunes Viana, veja “o Processo de Miguel de Mendonça Valladolid, Inquisição de Lisboa 9.973”. Lisboa, Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, manuscrito e Manuscritos não catalogados “caixa 676, século XVIII, anos 1703 –1710, 29 janeiro 1710 e caixa 83, ano 1719. Lisboa, Arquivo Histórico e Ultramarino, manuscritos.

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