the modern history of this town began back in 1530, when portugal's king joão iii attempted to secure the coastline of his colony of brazil - dom  joão iii sent his naval fleet to survey the coast, and the portuguese colonized the area in 1531, guided by captain martim afonso de souza.

the settlers encountered a large native tribe whose chief was named sapuguaçu. their village was called socoyrema, the name from which was derived the current towns' name saquarema, officially, nossa senhora de nazareth de saquarema (our lady of nazareth of saquarema).

'socoa-y-rema', in indigenous tamoio langugae means place without shells. another theory on the name of the city derives from the indigenous word socó-rema, referring to the long legged wading birds that lived around the lagoons there. at the end of the sixteenth century the first missionaries arrived, and by 1755 the area was officially named freguesia ao curato de nossa senhoar de nazareth de saquarema.