Oliveira is a Spanish and Portuguese surname, used in Spanish-speaking and Portuguese-speaking countries, and to a lesser extent in former Spanish and Portuguese colonies. Its origin is from the Latin word olivarĭus , meaning 'olive tree'. In Spain and Portuguese, de Oliveira may refer to both 'of the olive tree' and/or 'from the olive tree'.
de Oliveira was one of the Conversos surnames adopted by Sephardic families after converting (often forced) to Christianity.[1] This practice was a means of avoiding the Portuguese Inquisition prosecution and possible torture if found as non-Catholics. Because the Portuguese Empire had been established around 1500, many of the Jewish and New Christian populations fled to Brazil and other Portuguese colonies. Similar names in other languages include the Italian Olivetti and Oliveto and Spanish Olivares.
Origin of the surname
The surname identifies this family with the olive tree and the symbolic characteristics existing on 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, De Oliveira or D'Oliveira have historically been used by Jews who settled in Portugal and Spain, and adopted a translated form of their family name to hide their Judean origin. According to historian Anita Novinsky of the University of São Paulo, a scholar of the Portuguese Inquisition, 1 out of every 3 Portuguese who arrived in Brazil in the first decades of the 16th century (after the discovery of Brazil by Pedro Álvares Cabral, himself a New Christian and member of the Order of Christ, a Knights Templar order made exclusively of Judeans) were new Christians — well over 2 million 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 in southeast Brazil.
The chronicles of the time themselves 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 Soria, Cáceres, 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 and to Judeans could trace and prove they were direct offspring of Hebronites so both the priesthood and royal lineage took 'De Oliveira' so they could be later traced. They were also allowed to marry only among Levites and Hebronites themselves following biblical paternal lineage.
The offspring of the tribe of Levy and Hebron intentionally settled between Spain, Galicia and Portugal for two reasons, first because it is inland and far from the great centers of Spain, where the first killings of Judeans or pogroms began, promoted by Catholic priests of the Dominican and Carmelite orders, which urged the old Christian population to kill the New Christian former-Jews and the unconverted Judeans and also gave them freedom to cross the borders among the different countries accordingly to the laws of each State.
Toponymic
Oliveira is also a Portuguese toponymic surname, locally originating in Paço de Oliveira, modern-day North province. Oliveira derives from Latin olīva, which ultimately derives from Proto-Indo-European *hloywom. Its first documented use dates back to the 13th century, from Évora noble Pedro de Oliveira, and his son, Braga archbishop D. Martinho Pires de Oliveira. Further tracing of its origins show that it derives from ancient Roman aristrocats from the gens Oliva.[2]
