Last name origin & meaning: 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.
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