Camacho
A note on the Camacho surname, widespread in Madeira, which the annotator of the Saudades traces to a Spanish origin; the name of Camacha parish may derive from an early landholder so called.
This is a family surname that is very widespread on this island and certainly has several origins. The annotator of the Saudades, however, says that ‘it is of Spanish origin and seems to derive from Dom Fernando Camacho, who served on this island in the Spanish garrison, according to oral information we have obtained. In the parish (freguesia) of Caniço (‘reed’), where some of the earliest settlers in Madeira lived, this surname is still common. The name Camacha, borne by the parish so called, which was separated from Caniço in 1679, leads one to presume that some early sesmeiro (holder of a land grant, or sesmaria) with the surname Camacho may have lived there.