Desousa Surname: Origin, Meaning & Coat of Arms

Here is what public records tell us about the Desousa last name. The 2010 US Census counted 3,915 people named Desousa, ranking it number 8,437 among American surnames. Spain's INE counts 3,385 residents with Desousa as first surname and 3,336 with it as second.

Heraldry and the Desousa name

Sharing the Desousa name is not the same as sharing a crest; arms were granted to individual families.

Researching the origin

Standard surname dictionaries do not settle the origin of Desousa, so we research it family by family rather than guess. Local archives often hold baptisms and marriages that never reached online indexes.

Want more than a summary? See the Desousa family name pack.