Heraldry and Geneaology

The Medeiros Coat of Arms:

Elements of his design has been worked into the Medeiros Web's new graphic by Anthony at Emblazon Multimedia.

The Origin of the Name "Medeiros":

Medeiros Family Name History
(source: The Historical Research Center,Inc)

The Portuguese surname Medeiros, is of toponymic origin, deriving from the place-name where the first bearer lived or held land. In this instance, the surname Medeiros derives from the place-name "Medeiros" which is the name of numerous locations in Portugal. Therefore, the initial bearer of the community as "one who came from Medeiros".

However, not all the genealogists agree on the origin of this name. Some of them suggest that the surname Medeiros derives from the Portuguese word "meda" which means "stack or pile" denoting thus, the initial bearer of this name was either someone whose work required to stack things or one who lived near stacks.

According to this opinion, the progenitor of this family was one Martim Sanches das Medas, who lived during the reign of King Afonso III and fought bravely during the battle of Porto in the year 1245. In this battle, the aforementioned knight was the standard-bearer of Count Martim Gil de Soverosa, great lord of those times who fought Rodrigo Sanches, son of King Sancho I. It was the descendants of Martim Sanches das Medas, in fact the third generation, who first used the variant Medeiros.

The first person recorded bearing the name Medeiros is one Rui Goncalves de Medeiros who gave his support to Mestre de Avis in his dispute with King Juan I of Castilla. He received as a reward the castle of the town of Evora. A branch of the Medeiros family lived in the Algarve (southern Portugal) during the XV century and in the same period, another branch lived on the island of St Miguel. Both branches came originally from Ponte de Lima.

The word "Meda" also refers to a little town that is part of the Portuguese city of Guarda which was founded by Dom Sancho I. In this context the town may have been named for a conic mountain. (Source : Diccionario Encyclopedico da Lingua Portugueza , by Simoes da Fonseca , Livraria Garnier , 1927)

Portuguese History and Genealogy: