Moniz Barreto

Moniz Barreto is the surname of one of the oldest and noblest families of Portugal.

 

The origin of the Moniz Barreto goes back to the XV th century.

It starts with the union of Ines Barreto and Henrique Moniz, who married circa 1453.

Members of famous historical families of Portugal, both of them kept their birth names and generated a new branch.

Henrique Moniz was the governor of Silves, by then the capital city of Algarve (southern Portugal).

 

The origins of the Barreto family name go back to the XIII th century.

It has been used by a knight who descended from a prestigious line of northern Europe (earls of Brittany) :

having bravely participated to the Reconquista, he has been rewarded with titles and lands by the first kings of Portugal.

The surname seems to be derivated from the ancient portuguese word Barra which designated a coastal cliff ;

their family manor being by then located on the top of a cliff along the atlantic coast,

in the region of Viana do Castelo (northern Portugal).

 

The Moniz family name is even more ancient.

The first written trace of the name Moniz can be found in a manuscript of the end of the XI th century,

in which a lady bearing the name of Moniz is mentionned as a parent of the queen of Leon.

The origin of the surname is uncertain and often debated by historians

but is most probably derivated from the name of a high ranked muslim military

who was part of the army led by Tariq ibn Ziyad, who crossed the mediterranean sea with 12 000 men on april 711,

to invade the iberian peninsula.

 

Along centuries, some new branches were born out of the original Moniz Barreto trunk,

and flourished durably in various regions of the world.

Among those branches two prestigious ones must be cited : 

the Moniz Barreto Corte Real (Madeira & Azores)

and the Moniz Barreto de Aragaô (Brazil).