NameSebastiana Rodrigues16
Birth Datec. 1715
Birth PlacePortugal
Spouses
Birth Datec. 1712
Birth PlacePortugal
ChildrenDomingo (1754-)
Notes for Joao (Spouse 1)
Where do the Rodrigue come from? The surname has a Germanic origin: HROD-RIC . HROD means GLORY; it is found in many other names, like HDROD-WULF, which gave RODOLPHE or RUDOLF. RIC means WEALTH or POWER; our modern word RICH would be derived from it (in the Frankish language, RIKI meant POWERFUL).

So the Rodrigue would be of Germanic descent. As the surname is very widely used in the Iberian Peninsula, one might reason that it would have been introduced by the Wisigiths, a Germanic people which settled in Spain and in the South of France from the VIth Century.
Besides, one of their kings (in fact, the last one) was named RODERIC. With the latinization of the Wisigoths, the name RODERIC became RODERIGO, and then RODRIGO. From this forename came the Spanish surname RODRIGUEZ (son of RODRIGO), which was slightly altered to become RODRIGUES in Portugal.
The RODRIGUEZ surname is very common in the Iberian world, as we have seen above; it has also been adopted among the Jewish population of the peninsula. Because of the Inquisition which was conducted there after the Reconquista from the Arabs, many Spanish Jews had to leave their country; so we can find in France, at that period, some Jewish families named RODRIGUEZ. Some have even gone further: I have been in contact with a Turkish RODRIGUE (and yes, without the final z) of Jewish origin, whose ancestors settled in Turkey as early as the XVth Century, and who is now living in Ankara.
Last Modified 24 Feb 2003Created 20 Aug 2017 © Martin Romano Garcia, Asuncion.