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Guimarães, also spelled Guimaraes without the diacritic and historically Guimaraens, is a Portuguese toponymic surname. It comes from places named Guimarães, especially the historic city in northern Portugal.
Guimarães (Portuguese pronunciation: [ɡimɐˈɾɐ̃jʃ] or Portuguese pronunciation: [ɡimɐˈɾɐ̃js]), also spelled Guimaraes without the diacritic and historically Guimaraens, is a Portuguese toponymic surname. It comes from places named Guimarães, especially the historic city in northern Portugal.
The place name comes from the Low Latin form [Villa] Vimaranis, meaning "the estate of Vímara". The personal name Vímara was Germanic in origin. Older forms such as Vimaranis and Vimaranes later developed into the modern Portuguese form Guimarães.
The city of Guimarães had a Jewish community in the Middle Ages, and some families bearing the surname may have Jewish or New Christian ancestry. The surname itself is usually explained as a geographic name, not as a specifically Sephardic surname.
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Origin and etymology
Guimarães is a habitational surname, meaning that it came from a place name. Portuguese surnames of this kind often began as a way to identify a person or family by place of origin. In this case, the name points to places called Guimarães, especially the city in the old province of Minho, in northern Portugal.
The older place name, [Villa] Vimaranis, meant "the estate of Vímara". Vímara was a Germanic personal name. The Guimarães city council gives the early form as Vimaranes and explains it as the genitive of the Germanic personal name Vímara or Guímara, probably the name of an early landowner.
The change from Vimaranis and Vimaranes to Guimarães followed a pattern found in several northern Portuguese place names. The older forms Vimaranis and Vimaranes changed over time into Guimarães, with a new initial sound, nasal vowels and a shorter middle syllable. The same history survives in the word vimaranense, the Portuguese demonym for a person from Guimarães.
The city of Guimarães is closely tied to the early history of Portugal. Its historic centre is associated with the rise of Portuguese national identity in the twelfth century, explaining why the surname spread in Portugal and later in Portuguese-speaking countries, especially Brazil.
People with the surname
Notable people with the surname include:
Adair José Guimarães (born 1960), Brazilian Roman Catholic bishop
Afonsinho (Afonso Guimarães da Silva; 1914–1997), Brazilian footballer
Agberto Guimarães (born 1957), Brazilian middle-distance runner
Alencar Guimarães (1865–1940), Brazilian lawyer and politician
Alexandre Guimarães (born 1959), Brazilian-Costa Rican football player and manager
Alexandre Guimarães (politician) (born 1986), Brazilian politician
Alphonsus de Guimaraens (1870–1921), Brazilian poet, born Afonso Henriques da Costa Guimarães
Alphonsus de Guimaraens Filho (1918–2008), Brazilian poet
André Luís Guimarães Fonseca (born 1970), Brazilian basketball player
Antônio Alberto Guimarães Rezende (1926–2015), Brazilian Roman Catholic bishop
