Pereira (surname)

Pereira is a surname in the Portuguese and Galician languages, well known and quite common, mostly in Portugal, Galicia, Brazil, other regions of the former Portuguese Empire, among Galician descendants in Spanish-speaking Latin America. The adoption of this surname also became common among Sephardic Jews of Portuguese origin and was historically spread throughout the Sephardic Jewish diaspora. Origin: toponymic/natural world, from Latin pirum. Currently, it is one of the most common surnames in South America and Europe. Started as a noble Christian toponym of the Middle Ages, taken from the feudal estate of Pereira, Portugal, which in Portuguese means 'pear tree'. The variants of this name are more commonly found in other countries like Spain (Galicia) with different spellings such as Pereyra or Perera, Trinidad and Tobago, India (specifically between Goa and Kerala along the Konkan coast), Pakistan and Sri Lanka. In France, the variant is Pereire. Many Portuguese immigrants to the United States, especially Massachusetts, chose to Americanize their surname into Perry. As a toponymic surname, it does not refer to a single lineage with a single founder, but to numerous and non-related lineages. See also Pereyra and Perera. Anália de Victória Pereira (1941–2009), Angolan politician Aristides Pereira (1923–2011), Cape Verdean politician Carlina Pereira (c.