2208: Brazilian Demonyms with São Dec 31, 2020

While there are some famous exceptions, usually the way to form a demonym—i.e. the term for a people of a certain place—is just to add one of a few suffixes like -er, -(i)an, or -ite. In a number of Brazilian names with São (saint) this is more complicated. For instance, while São Paulo goes to 'Paulistano', São Luís goes to 'Ludovicense', but São Carlos goes to 'Sãocarlense' or 'Carlopolitano'. This is counter to Spanish wherein 'Santa' (saint) usually stays at the beginning and other standard suffixes are added, but in Portuguese this is less consistent with the name of eponymous saint being what is used. That said, official demonyms do not always match up with how people talk, such as how the official one for Massachusetts is 'Bay Stater', but few people would likely say this and opt for 'Massachusettsian'.