Last name: PORTEOUS

Back
Welcome at Geneanet!

Welcome at Geneanet!

With Geneanet, find your ancestors from home, create your family tree for free, and explore and share your family history. Genealogy has never been easier, thanks to our database of 9 billion individuals, and our community of enthusiasts.

Discover Geneanet

All you have to know about the last name PORTEOUS

Last name frequency

PORTEOUS : This last name is indexed 35,153 times on Geneanet!

Origin of last name

PORTEOUS : English and Scottish: nickname from Middle English and Older Scots port(e)hors portas porte(i)s portos portus porthous porteus portewas ‘portable breviary prayer book’. It is a borrowing of Old French porte-hors Anglo-Norman French porteose porteho(r)s port(h)eus literally something ‘carried out of doors’. The surname may have been given to someone who habitually carried such a book or for a scribe employed to write them. In modern times it is chiefly a Scottish surname which probably accounts for its presence in northern England but the name is also well evidenced in southeastern England in the medieval period and in northern Lincolnshire since the 17th century. The Scottish surname became established in Ireland by the mid 16th century.

Learn more

Variants of last name

The spelling of names may have changed over the centuries. Knowing these names variants will help you build your family tree.

Search a name

Discover your ancestors and build your family tree step by step through billions of data included in our members' family trees and through civil records.

Most popular first names

Most indexed places

Most indexed countries

Available collections for this name