Italian, Portuguese (Bonifácio): from the personal name
Bonifacio (Latin Bonifatius, from bonum ‘good’ +
fatum ‘fate’, ‘destiny’). In Late Latin -ti- and
-ci- came to be pronounced identically; the name was thus often
respelled Bonifacius and assigned the meaning ‘doer of good
deeds’, derived by folk etymology from Latin facere ‘to
do’. Bonifatius was the name of the Roman military governor of
North Africa in 422–32, who was a friend of St. Augustine. It was
also borne by various early Christian saints and was adopted by nine
popes. The personal name was always more popular in Italy (in its
various cognate forms) than elsewhere; the original sense ‘well fated’
remained transparent in Italian, so the name was often bestowed there
for the sake of the good omen.
Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
8,050
Historical Documents & Family Trees with Bonifacio
Click on a place to view Bonifacio immigration records
The information for this chart came from the U.S. Immigration Collection at Ancestry.co.uk.
You can find out where the majority of the Bonifacio families were living before
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Click on a circle in the chart to view Bonifacio emigration records
You can find out when most of the Bonifacio families immigrated
to the United States.
You can focus your search to emigration records dating from that era.
Emigration records can tell you an ancestor's name, ship name, port of departure,
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