Barcelos

The -os suffix in toponyms of the Iberian northwest —⁠recurrent in places such as Lemos, Outeiros, Cangas⁠— regularly marks ownership by a Roman landowner: 'the villa or estate of so-and-so'. Behind Barcelos stands the personal name Barcalus, attested in Hispanic epigraphy as a personal name of uncertain root —⁠possibly pre-Roman relusified⁠—⁠. The form is documented from the 9th century in cartularies of the County of Portucale. The famous Rooster of Barcelos —⁠a pilgrim nobleman falsely accused of theft, saved by the crowing of a roasted rooster that rose from the judge's plate to proclaim him innocent⁠— is a 15th-century Jacobean legend associated with a votive cross preserved in the Paço dos Condes: it belongs to the culture of the Camino, not to the etymology of the place.