Reader question – Claudio Soares Alencar, Rio de Janeiro, RJ
He inherited the last name of the owner of these lands at the end of the 16th century: the Portuguese João Pereira de Souza Botafogo (1540?-1605). In Portugal, it was common to give this surname to craftsmen who created firearms. João Pereira came to Brazil and, when he bought the vast property from his friend Antônio Francisco Velho, in 1590, the neighborhood was named in his honor. In other words: nothing to do with a burning boot or a pyromaniac… But, to compensate, other areas of the city have very curious stories.
Wonderful (and creative) city
There is a neighborhood named after a bird, a businessman, a Bolivian city…
piety
The train station in this neighborhood in the north of the city was called Terra dos Gambás. Not very attractive, right? The director of the Estrada de Ferro Central do Brasil renamed it after receiving a letter written by the wife of one of the owners of a local farm: “For mercy, doctor, change the name of our little station!”
Realengo
Another name with two origins – one popular, one traditional. The etymological explanation says that “realengo”, in Germanic, means lands far from royal control. The folklore says that, in fact, the region was called Real Engenho, but the abbreviation “Real Engº”, affixed to the trams, ended up becoming popular.
Copacabana
It is an indigenous word… from Bolivia! In the Quechua language, of the Incas, it means “viewpoint of the blue”. In Aymara, also Bolivian, it means “view of the lake” – and there is even a city of Copacabana on the shores of Lake Titicaca. From there, silver merchants brought an image of Our Lady of Copacabana, “importing” that name
bangu
The most accepted hypothesis is that it came from banguê. African slaves used the term to designate both the area on the mills where sugarcane bagasse was stored and a type of improvised transport, made of a kind of stretcher, to carry sugarcane, bricks and other materials.
Ipanema
The famous beach owes its name to a paulista! “Ipanema” (“fishless river” in Tupi) was a river in Iperó, in the interior of São Paulo, near which a steel mill was created in 1810. Its owner became rich and became the Baron of Ipanema. His son, who inherited the title, acquired lots in Copacabana that became the neighborhood
Flamengo
Another theory for the origin of Leblon refers to the Dutch navigator Olivier van Noort, commonly known as “Le Blond” (“The Blonde”). It is not taken seriously, but he really baptized another region: “Flemish” was the adjective, at the time, to designate those who were born in the Flanders region of Holland
Vila Valqueire
Legend has it that a sugarcane mill in the region had land that extended for five bushels (a unit of agricultural measurement that varies according to the region). As the indication was written in Roman numerals, it read “V alqueires”, which, over time, became just Valqueire
Maracanã
Home to one of the largest stadiums in the world (and the largest in Brazil) it housed another national symbol at the time of Portuguese colonization: the parrot. Several species of this bird lived around a river in the region. The Tupi name for the animal, maraka¿nã, ended up being associated with the watercourse and, later, with the neighborhood
Leblon
It is also a surname of French businessman Charles Leblon (1804-1880, sometimes spelled LeBlon). He manufactured the whale oil used in the old lamp posts that lit the city. But his notoriety came from a feud with the industrialist Barão de Mauá
Sources: Websites Veja Rio, iG, Diário do Rio, Wikipedia, Data Warehouse Rio de Janeiro and Antigo Leblon
See too:
+ Which rivers inspire the names of Rio Grande do Sul, Rio Grande do Norte and Rio de Janeiro?