My SCA name is Aurelia Alfaiata d’Alcaçova.

Aurelia has been a common given name in Portugal for centuries. The modern spelling includes an acute accent (Aurélia), but the accent was absent before the 17th century. It has a latin origin, and is a derivation of the word aureus, meaning golden. My choice of name was influenced by a character from the novel Senhora by José de Alencar, the last book of a trilogy about the position of women in Brazil’s 19th century society.

Alfaiata means female tailor, and it was added as an occupational byname. It befits my SCA persona, and as stated here , references an early case of women being accepted in a previously male-only occupation.

Alcaçova is a locative byname, referring to the Portuguese village of Alcáçova. Again, the modern spelling includes an acute accent but I was not able to document its use during the 15th or 16th centuries. During that time, the village was a county seat and it is the place were the Peace Treaty of Alcáçovas-Toledo, the treaty that ended the War of the Castillian Sucession, was signed by Portugal and Spain in 1479.

Therefore, the meaning of my persona’s Portuguese name is “Aurelia, the female tailor from Alcaçova”.