Carvalho Family History

Portuguese: topographic name for someone who lived by a conspicuous oak tree carvalho or a habitational name from any of numerous places called with this word. This surname is also found in western India where it was taken by Portuguese colonists. Compare De Carvalho.

Jewish (Sephardic): Portuguese surname (see 1 above) adopted at the moment of conversion to Roman Catholicism. After the return to Judaism (generations later) some descendants retained the name their families used as Catholics.