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Cabral Recorded in the spellings of Cabrera, Cabral, Cabrallo, and Cabrales, this Spanish and Portuguese surname is both residential and job descriptive. It describes a person who lived at a goat farm, which in most cases would also mean a goat farmer. In most parts of the word prior to the late 19th century, goat farming was one of the most important of all occupations. The milk from goats being free from the virus in cows milk which was a major cause of the scourge diseases such as smallpox. Originally derived from the Roman (Latin) word 'capraria', like all such occupational surnames, this one was not at first hereditary, and did not become so in many regions until the 16th century or even later. Examples of the surname recording include Manuel Cabral of Trebujena, Cadiz, Spain, on February 3rd 1893, and Juan Cabrear Cabrales, who married Luisa Rodriguez at Madrid, Spain, on June 14th 1778. Other recordings are those of Gutierrez Cabrales on December 30th 1863 at Santa Catarina, Districto Federal, Mexico, and Edwarda Cabral who married Antonio Almeida at Vallejo, California, on January 24th 1921. The coat of arms has the blazon of a blue field, charged with three gold chevrons. In chief two knights spurs, and in base a crescent, all silver. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Ybanez Cabral, which was dated November 11th 1747, at Santa Vera Cruz, Districto Federal, Mexico, during the reign of King Ferdinand V1 of Spain, known as 'The wise one', 1746 - 1759. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.
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This description seems to ignore the Cabral family in Portugal where the family seem to originate in the town of Belmont in the north east of Portugal.
This description is incomplete in the case of México, where there is records that prove the presence of Domingo Cabral near the Villa de Jerez, in what is now the town of Jerez de García Salinas, in the state of Zacatecas. Domingo Cabral was born in that town around 1610 from a Juan Cabral that arrived in around 1588 and who married a native woman, very likely of the Wixarrica people (Huicholes). Domingo Cabral is shown in many records of 1649 both when he presented his sons and daughters for christening or in the many ocasions in which he was the 'padrino" of many indians of the wixarrica people, known then as "nazaritas" and later "nayaritas" Dominog had around 8 sons and daughters, whose descendants slowly moved around the area in the following decades and centuries. Now, the name Cabral is found often in that area that now is the north of Jalisco and the western Zacatecas as well as in many other places in México.
Apart from that the name Cabral is considered an old family name, both in Portugal and Galicia. It first appeared in record in the XIII century in Portugal.
The name is now not uncommon in Brazil and also in Argentina.