Welcome to The Camara Connection!
This is a page for and about persons all over the world who share the Portuguese surname Camara. If you are one of them and would like to be a part of this page, just drop me some email.
Origin of the Surname Camara
The Camara Coat of Arms
The Top 10 Camara States
Camaras in Canada
A Few People Named Camara
The surname Camara (Câmara in Portuguese) has its origin in the 14th century, beginning with a Portuguese sailor named João Gonçalves Zargo (or Zarco?) who lived circa 1380-1460.
Zargo was a squire belonging to the household of Prince Henry the Navigator. In 1418, he and Tristão Vaz Teixeira, another squire of Henry's house, were ordered by Henry to explore the land of Guinea in Africa, south of Morocco. Carried off course by a storm out into the Atlantic Ocean, they came upon an uninhabited island which they named Porto Santo. In 1419, they discovered a larger island to the southwest, which became known as Madeira. On Madeira, Zargo named a certain area "Câmara de Lobos" due to a number of sea lions found in a cave there. (Note: In Portuguese, sea lion is lobo marinho, which translates literally as sea wolf.)
On 4 July 1460, King Dom Afonso V of Portugal issued a decree changing his name to João Gonçalves Zargo da Câmara de Lobos. Usage then shortened his family name to Gonçalves da Câmara, which was subsequently passed on to his descendants.
His original surname Zargo, meaning "person with blue eyes," may be of Jewish or Arabic origin.
References:
Câmara, Rubens R., Cyber-Inn
Guill, James H., A History of the Azores Islands, Volume 5
The Camara coat of arms depicts a silver tower between two attacking wolves of gold, all on top of a hill of green and silver. The background is a field of black.
If anyone out there has a color version of the coat of arms, email me. It would make a great addition to this website.
Thanks to Francisco Antônio Doria for allowing me to use his drawing of the Camara coat of arms.
After seeing the list of the Top 10 Medeiros States on The Medeiros Web I became curious about which states had the most Camaras. So I used American Directory Assistance to look up the number of Camaras listed in the white pages in each state. Following is the list of the Top 10 Camara States:
1) Massachusetts (367)
2) California (192)
3) New York (120)
4) Rhode Island (119)
5) Florida (82)
6) Hawaii (57)
7) Texas (29)
8) Maryland (26)
9) New Jersey (22)
10) Connecticut (17)
Coming soon: The Bottom 40 Camara States!
Along the same lines as The Top 10 Camara States, this is a listing of the number of Camaras found in the white pages of each of the Canadian provinces and territories. To determine this, I used Canada411. Unfortunately, Canada411 does not have information for Alberta and Saskatchewan, so I have no data for those two provinces.
1) Ontario (200)
2) Quebec (72)
3) British Columbia (18)
4) Manitoba (17)
5) New Brunswick,Northwest Territories,Nova Scotia,Prince Edward Island,Yukon Territory (0)
- Bob Camara is a resident of Bridgeport, Connecticut. He works as a Research Chemist and Environmental and Safety Manager with a company in Fairfield, Connecticut. Bob serves as Flotilla Vice Commander of U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 24-2 of Stratford, Connecticut. He is also the owner of this website.
- Lisa Camara is a Veterinary Technician who has been in the field for about 12 years. She lives in Massachusetts and is currently back at school working on her BS in Biology. Lisa has been climbing her family tree since 1993. Her other hobbies include pets, respecting nature, canoing, bird watching, photography and learning more and more about computers. Lisa has been at a standstill for a while on Camara research, but is willing to share any information she has. She is also co-owner of At Net's End.
- Liz Camara is Bob's wife. She works as Office Manager for an insurance agency in Shelton, Connecticut. She's the greatest!
- Rubens R. Câmara is a lawyer in Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil. He is also the owner of Cyber-Inn.
Back to Bob's Place
The Camara Connection has been accessed 
times since 28 July 1997.
This page last updated 8 August 1997.
Questions or comments?
Email Bob Camara.
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