Torres Family History

Galician, Catalan, Spanish, Portuguese, and Jewish (Sephardic): habitational name from any of numerous places called Torres, all named with the plural of torre ‘tower’ (see Torre). As a Jewish name it was often adopted at the moment of conversion to Roman Catholicism.

After the return to Judaism (generations later), some descendants retained the name their families used as Catholics. Compare De Torres.

Italian: habitational name from Torres in Belluno or Porto Torres in Sassari. In southern Italy, the surname is sometimes of Spanish origin (see 1 above).