Nickname
Salgado surname meaning
A Galician and Portuguese nickname from salgado “salty,” used figuratively for a witty or piquant person (Late Latin salicatus).
The short story
Salgado is a Galician and Portuguese nickname from salgado, “salty,” used figuratively for someone witty, sharp, or piquant. The word traces to Late Latin salicatus, related to giving salt. As a descriptive byname it could arise independently wherever the Romance word was current, so shared spelling does not prove one lineage. Feminine Salgada appears in some records, and the name spread widely through Iberia and Latin America. Nickname is high confidence for the catalog because the salty/witty reading is the standard scholarly explanation.
Also seen as: Salgado, Salgadoz, Salgadu, Salgada
Sources used
- Wikipedia 'Salgado (name)' (Galician-Portuguese salgado “salty/witty”)
- Ancestry / Iberian surname references for Salgado (nickname from salt)
- Names2020_LastNames_RaceHispanic_Top1000.xlsx (2020 Census)