Here's how singer-guitarist John Gourley described the orgins to an interviewer last year for The Grammys official YouTube music channel. (Prepare to remain confused):
"The name is an alter ego ... We all love David Bowie and James Brown and Elvis. Things like that. And we wanted to create this alter ego much like Ziggy Stardust or Sgt. Pepper. And in doing that, we wanted to find something that was representative of our band, and our group. And I think ... We just were talking about it at the time, we just said, 'A country is an individual within the world that is a group of people, with it's own voice.' And I think it just came down to Portugal being the guy's name.
Portugal. The Man -- Origins of the band name
Important warning about e-mails purporting to be from the adn.com staff.