Parish records first identified the location as Amareleja in 1534. Until the present, there has been no firm explanation as to the name of this parish. On 10 April 1677, the parish priest, who published a book referring to the parish of Nossa Senhora de Concepsao de Marileiga. A similar document, dated 1 April 1695, also confirmed this designation and suggest a corruption of the original Marileiga. Another opinion, suggest that the settlement's name derived from the abundant yellow flowers in the region at the time, who the early settlers (likely from Beira Baixa) called Campo das Amarelas (). Finally, there also exist two properties between the village and the Spanish frontier that have the name Amarales and Amarela, and may have derived from these place names.
