Given name & surname
Afonso
“prepared for battle; eager and ready”
In Portuguese use, Afonso has a related form in Alfonso. One Italian interpretation is “prepared for battle; eager and ready.”
Meaning & origin
What it means
In Portuguese use, Afonso has a related form in Alfonso. One Italian interpretation is “prepared for battle; eager and ready.”
Explained through its name family
Where it comes from
In Portuguese use, Afonso has a related form in Alfonso. A possible origin is Germanic, although the derivation remains uncertain.
Explained through its name family
How it developed
From Old Galician-Portuguese Afonso, from Early Medieval Latin Adephonsus, from Gothic *𐌰𐌸𐌰𐌻𐌰𐍆𐌿𐌽𐍃.
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 2006. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Afonso through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 10
- 10 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 2006
- 5 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for boys is 5 in 2019. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 277 as a first name in 2020; 1,456 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Afonso’s family of names
In Portuguese usage, Afonso has a diminutive in Afonsinho. In Portuguese usage, Afonso shares a linguistic root with the Spanish form Alfonso. In Portuguese usage, Afonso has a conventional equivalent in the Italian form Alonzo.
Inner ring: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Around the world
Afonso has relatives in 5 languages.
6 related names in 5 languages. Point at a dot, or tab to the map and use the arrow keys.
Nicknames & forms 3
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Across languages 8
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
People named Afonso
- Afonso de AlbuquerquePortuguese general, admiral, and statesman (1453–1515)
- Afonso I of Portugalking of Portugal from 1139 to 11851109–1185
- Afonso II of PortugalKing of Portugal1185–1223
- Afonso V of PortugalKing of Portugal and the Algarves1432–1481
- Afonso III of PortugalKing of Portugal1210–1279
- Afonso IV of PortugalKing of Portugal1291–1357
- Afonso VI of PortugalKing of Portugal and the Algarves1643–1683
- Afonso Pena6th president of Brazil1847–1909
- Afonso AlvesBrazilian footballerborn 1981
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Similar names
If you love Afonso, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.