We are planning a trip to Portugal later in the year. I was googling around and found out there was a famous Portuguese explorer responsible for much of that country’s success in that era named Afonso de Albuquerque. I’ve heard of Henry the Navigator, Vasco de Gama and maybe some other Portuguese explorers, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard of this Albuquerque fellow. He seems to be quite important to the Portuguese success during those times.
I also learned there are two different Dukes, one in Spain and one in Portugal that spell the name differently: Duke of Alburquerque (Spanish, with an “r”) and Duke of Albuquerque (Portuguese, without the “r”)
These days I live just outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico and it definitely has a Spanish history, but the name of the city follows the Portuguese spelling. It also seems the city changed its spelling at some point. Around 1858 a French priest began to use the Portuguese spelling and somehow, inexplicably, it stuck.
I admit I still probably would have trouble spelling either version, since I mostly rely on auto-complete for this one. BTW, spell check flags the “r” spelling as incorrect. I suppose that is mostly right.