What does an Italian surname sound like? Many examples can be given. Alessandro Botticelli, Piero della Francesca, Domenico Ghirlandaio... These are the names of the great Renaissance artists living in Italy. Not only their paintings, but also their surnames are distinguished by their extraordinary beauty.
Italian surnames - origin Italian surnames
Most Italian surnames have historically been derived from the place of residence and birth of the person bearing the surname. Came from Vinci famous family artist Leonardo da Vinci. This city is located in eastern Tuscany, attracting with its unique landscapes. But during the artist’s life, oddly enough, mostly only his name was used. The sculptor Andrea Pisano was also very popular. His work related to the design of the bronze south door of the unique Florence Baptistery is very famous. At first the sculptor was given the name Andrea da Pontedra. This happened because he was born in the beautiful village of Pontedra, which was located next to the famous city of Pisa. Later this sculptor was called "Pisano". This city is famous for its Leaning Tower. There is one famous person Spain, which actually bears the name of the city. This is Perugino or Perugia. The most popular Italian surname is Lombardi. It comes from the name of the area, the name of which coincides with the given surname. Ask anyone the name of any creation by Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi. It is unlikely that you will hear an intelligible answer. People know little about the creations of this man. And if you remember famous works, such as the Adoration of the Magi or the Birth of Venus, which are located in the Uffizi, this will bring to mind Botticelli. So, Botticelli is Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi. He received his surname from his older brother Giovane, who was a moneylender. The brother's name was Il Botticello.
Italian surnames - list of Italian surnames
Another Florentine artist of the fifteenth century bears the striking surname Giuliano Bugiardini. This translates to "little liar". It can be assumed that his family had the gift beautiful speech. There are many other beautiful Italian surnames that can be listed. These are Torregrossa, which means “big tower”, and Quattrochi - “four eyes”, and Bella - “beautiful”, and Bonmarito, which means “good husband”. Most Italian surnames are closely related to the type of activity in which the person was engaged, trade. For example, Domenico Ghirlandaio, who was a painter dating back to the Renaissance, was famous for his frescoes, when his ancestor was probably a gardener or a person who sold all kinds of flowers. This conclusion can be made because the word ghirlanda in the painter’s surname is translated as a garland or wreath.
Real name Andrea del Sarto, a Florentine painter famous for his frescoes, had the name Andrea d'Agnolo di Francesco. The nickname del sarto means tailor. It came from the profession of the painter's father. Other examples of Italian surnames can be given, the origin of which is related to the type of activity of the person wearing them. This is Contadino, which means “farmer”, and Tagliabue - “butcher”, and Auditore - “listener”. Very often, painters left their surname. For example, Piero di Cosimo belonged to the Renaissance. since it belonged to his father. Translated, the surname means “son of Piero Cosimo. Piero della Francesco bore the surname, which was derived from beautiful name his mother. Piero della Francesca means "son of Francesca". The painter is famous for his fresco repeating the legend of the crucifixion of Christ. It appeared in Arezzo in the thirteenth century.
Italian surnames - meaning of Italian surnames
Usually Italian surnames originated from the geographic location of the person. They served as a description of human activity. You can focus your attention on another point: the prevalence of a particular Italian surname. IN modern world The surname Esposito is very common. The surname is translated as “exposed” from Latin. It means: “to place outside.” This Italian surname means orphan. From the history of Italy it is known that abandoned children were mainly left in the nearest church. The name comes from here. You can give several more examples of such surnames. These are Orfanelli, which means “little orphans”, and Poverelli, which means “little poor people”, and Trovato/Trovatelli – “found little foundling”.
The best Italian surnames Rossi, Ferrari and Russo are considered. Then come the surnames Esposito, Romano and Bianchi.
But among Italian surnames there are strange, completely atypical surnames. For example, one of the heads of state with the surname Aznar lives in Como. One Blair lives in Rome. In the Veneto region you can often find the surname Putin, and Schroder has filled the whole of Italy. 27 municipalities in Italy have citizens with the surname Mann. One Hemingway lives in Milan, and the other is registered in Perugia. The surname Bush is most often found in Genoa and Milan. Lewinsky resides in Riva del Garda. Ten municipalities have one citizen with the last name Washington. modern Italy. The Italian surname Freud is found in Brescia. Forty-five Italian citizens bear the surname Jung. The surname Milano can easily be found in Milan, while in Genoa the surname Firenze is most common.
578 municipalities in Italy include Italian citizens who bear the surname Paris. 322 municipalities in this country contain the surname Sofia, 84 - Malta, and 22 - Vienna. You may notice that in modern Italy there are many surnames atypical for this country, but the most interesting thing is to meet a person who is the bearer of an ancient Italian surname. Italian surnames are beautiful. Unusual pronunciation and rich history. Therefore, it is considered prestigious to have such a surname of Italian origin.
Every person born into the world is given a name. Last name is to a greater extent a name for the whole family. Among the Italians, this concept is denoted by the word - cognome (cognome), translated as “what comes next to the name.” Something similar to the surname existed back in Ancient Rome, where citizens were addressed by their triple name.
For example: the name Ronald Julius Demiron meant that the person was named “Ronald”, his family originated from an ancestor who bore the name “Julius”, and “Demeron” is a characteristic received from society, which, by the way, could change throughout life. Famous personalities could have more names.
In the Middle Ages, it became customary to address a person by the name given at baptism. Surnames that are now found in Italy became widespread around the 14th century, when there was a sharp need to distinguish between people with the same names (of which there were a lot by that time). The first surnames appeared in Venice, they were given only to people from a noble family. In 1564, the city council of Trento approved the form of entry in the parish register (first name + surname).
Families First
The owners of the most vibrant and temperamental nation, the Italians, have equally interesting and unique surnames. Most Italian surnames end with the letter “I”, and this is because this nation has an amazing habit of denoting family by the name of ancestors in the plural. For example: Diego gli Formento would be called "messer Diego degli Formenti", that is, Diego from the Formento family.
Italians never used surnames in singular, even if it concerned one person.
These surname endings were characteristic of certain areas of Italy:
- Venice: -asso, -ato and consonants (l, n, r): Bissacco, Marcato, Cavinato, Brombal, Benetton, Meneghin, Vazzoler;
- Sicily: -alaro and -isi: Gavaoro, Luglisi;
- Lombardy: -ago/ghi and -ate/ati: Monomiraghi, Monati;
- Friuli: -otti/utti and -t: Rambolotti, Balcutti, Rigonat;
- Tuscany: -ai and -aci/ecci/ucci: Bollai, Codducci;
- Sardinia: -u and -as: Schirru, Sarras;
- Piedmont: -ero, -audi, -asco, -zzi: Ferrero, Rambaudi, Rumaco, Ronazzi;
- Calabria: -ace: Storace.
In Italy, the names of two ancestors could be written down as one.
In most cases, Italian surnames were formed from the person's birthplace. For example: Leonardo da Vinci was from the city of Vinci, which is located in eastern Tuscany. Also, many surnames came from personal names, and the dictionary of Italian surnames indicates that many took the baptismal name as the basis of the surname.
Many Italian surnames take their names from the names of flowers and trees, for example: Foresta - forest, Uva - grapes, Grano - grain. Some surnames were assigned according to status, for example: Giudice (judge), Medici (medics), Cardinali (cardinals). And some of the surnames took their name from animals: Catto - cat, Leoni - lions, Lupi - wolves, Cavalli - horses.
Beautiful Italian surnames
Italian surnames sound like music. The passion of sun-drenched Tuscany and the heat of Sicily, the languid whisper of palm trees in Sardinia are intertwined in them. Degasperi, Manfioletti, Bressanini, Albertini, Povoli, Leonardi, Sartori, Larentis, Bernardi, Mattevi, Avancini, Colombini, Franceschini, Dorigoni, Cristelli, Tonini, Martinelli, Molinari, Niccolini, Coelli, Gardami, Righetti, Andreota, Berlusconi, Vicchetzo, Napolitano, Sforza, Borgia, Mancini, Mazarin, Antonell, Giuliani, Carrera, Viardot, Cavalli, Orsini, Rinaldi, Fabretti, Conti, Rossellini, Corleone - the list can be endless.
And even the translation is not so important, because these surnames are beautiful in themselves. By the way, divisions into traditionally female and traditionally male surnames there is no. All surnames, as confirmed by the dictionary of Italian surnames, equally refer to both ardent Italians and charming Italians.
Funny surnames
We can judge the funnyness of surnames only by translation. However, to the Italians themselves, what may seem funny or unusual people with the Slavic mentality, it won’t seem strange. For example, Squarcialupi: “Squarciare” is translated as “to skin,” and with particular cruelty, and “Lupi” means wolves.
Pelaratti - rats. Saltaformaggio – “jumping cheese”. Rousseau - Russian, Colombo - pigeon. Marino is sea, Bruno is dark.
Popular Italian surnames
The Dictionary of Italian Surnames provides a huge list of common family names that anyone can familiarize themselves with. Italy has given the world many great names, the bearers of which have glorified their country and made their surnames popular far beyond its borders.
Here are just a few of them:
- Adriano Celentano - composer, actor and director;
- Amerigo Vespucci - traveler, scientist and discoverer;
- Antonio Vivaldi - the most virtuoso violinist;
- Valentino Garavani - designer and fashion designer, founder of the famous Valentino brand;
- Galileo Galilei - physicist, mathematician and philosopher;
- Guglielmo Marconi - entrepreneur, inventor. The Russian scientist Popov and the Italian Marconi are considered the inventors of radio;
- Antonio Stradivari is the most famous master who made violins, guitars and cellos;
- Gianni Versace - fashion designer, designer, founder of the Versace brand;
- Gina (Luigina) Lollobrigida is a famous actress;
- Isabella Rossellini - model, actress;
- Carla Bruni - model, singer. Wife former president France Nicolas Sarkozy;
- Claudia Cardinale - actress;
- Leonardo da Vinci - inventor, artist, sculptor. A man who was ahead of his time and left countless mysteries for posterity.
History of Italian surnames.
Italian surnames are very melodic and sound romantic to the Russian ear. This arouses special interest in them. Moreover, history of Italian surnames the oldest in Europe. The first Italian surnames appeared in the 14th century in Venice, when confusion arose due to large quantity identical names. And already in the second half of the 16th century, almost all residents of Italy had a family hereditary name. Italians are famous for their loyalty to the culture of their homeland, so when browsing list of Italian surnames in alphabetical order, you are unlikely to find traces of other peoples in them. It is easy to distinguish Italian surnames - most of them end with the vowels “i” and “o”. In russian language Declension of Italian surnames unacceptable, that is, they do not change by case.
Classification of surnames by meaning.
Interpretation of Italian surnames very different. Some surnames were formed from the names of the father, grandfather or mother. Such surnames often contain the particle “di”, indicating affiliation. For example, Pietro di Alberto (Pietro, son of Alberto), Leonardo di Caprio (Leonardo, son of Capri. The name Capri indicated that the person was from the island of Capri). In Italy, family occupations are very common and many surnames reflect this (Contandino - “peasant”). Meaning parts Italian surnames associated with geographical names– Romano (originally from Rome), da Vinci (from the city of Vinci). Like other peoples, Italians have many surnames derived from personal nicknames - Gobbo (hunchbacked), Basso (short). I wonder what dictionary of Italian surnames contains surnames that were assigned to foundling children. Among them is the well-known, sonorous and popular surname Esposito in Italy, which means “abandoned”, “nameless”.
Original Italian surnames.
As you can see, Italian surnames are very diverse. Sometimes you can meet people with completely atypical Italian surnames, generated by the rich imagination of their first owners. For example, in different regions of Italy you can find the surname Washington, Paris (Paris), Sofia. And in Milan, the surname Milano does not surprise anyone. Some native Italians with wild imagination take for themselves famous names Bush, Lewinsky, Blair and even Putin. True, it’s extremely rare. Sometimes such “originality” is simply shocking. For example, the surname Squarcialupi means “sadist,” and the melodic surname Finocchio indicates an unconventional sexual orientation.
It must be said that Italians do not pretend to have a wealth of personal names; they are quite satisfied with the minimum of traditional names. But the number of surnames is striking in its diversity. Top Italian surnames shows that the most common surnames are Russo (red-haired), Bianchi (white), Ferrari (blacksmith) and other equally beautiful surnames.
Popular Italian surnames and their meanings
We present a list that includes the most popular and beautiful Italian surnames.
Allegro- Funny
Barbarossa– Red beard
Barbieri– Hairdressers
Bonmarito- Good husband
Botticelli– Keg
Bruno- Brown
Bugiardini– Little liar
Bianchi- White
Guidice- Judge
Guerra- War
Ghirlandaio- Flowers
Grasso– Toasty
Gentile- Polite
Ingannamorte– The winner
Cavalli- Horses
Carbone- Coal
Quattrocs– 4 eyes
Colombo- Pigeon
Conte– Count
Marino– Marine
Medici– Doctors
Moretti– Black
Neri- Black
Pellegrini– Pilgrims
Pontedra– Arrived from Pontedra
Ricci– Curly
Romano– Roman
Russia- Ginger
Saltaformaggio– Jumping cheese
Sarto– Tailor
Serra– Greenhouse
Squarcialupi– Hunter
Torregrossa– Big Boska
Ferrari– Blacksmith
Finocchio– Fennel
Fumagalli- Smoke
Esposito- Free
What associations do we have when we hear such names as, for example, Leonardo da Vinci, Raffaello, Christopher Columbus, Maria Medici, Adriano Celentano, Giorgio Armani, Gianni Versace?.. This list can be continued indefinitely, and we know that under all these names and surnames there are hidden famous recognized people of Italy. People who changed the world and ideas in many ways, who gave it art and theories. But do we think at such moments about what these surnames really mean? For us, foreigners, they sound very melodic and poetic, beautiful and mysterious. Not at all like how we hear the names Kozlovsky, Sidorov, Dudko, Morozov, etc. Although no one, of course, denies that for foreigners they can also sound poetic. But each surname, like almost any word, has its own history, etymology, and origin. And this is very interesting today, when we are all in a hurry to get somewhere, and on TV they only show about show business stars.
The science that studies surnames and their origin is called onomastics and its subcategory anthroponymy. It is anthroponymy that we owe the knowledge of the origin of names and surnames, and therefore the knowledge of how our ancestors lived, what they did, what they were like, because we now bear their surnames.
A little history
Italians, as usual, did not always have surnames. The origin of surnames in the 14th century is due to the great confusion of people associated with a huge amount identical names. Population growth has made it clear that there cannot be enough names for all people. Therefore, it became necessary to give a second name, that is, a surname (as we see, even now there are dozens of people who have the same first and surname, and sometimes even patronymic). The first surnames appeared in Venice. Then they spread throughout Italy and soon became the general normative norm for naming people. At birth, the child was given not only a first name, but also a surname.
But how did people come up with them? Did the surnames just come out of thin air or did they have some meaning? Did people rack their brains, or did ideas come to them immediately?
Etymology
The origin of Italian surnames has a very interesting basis. Many of the oldest Italian surnames are still borne by ordinary Italians. The understanding of etymology has long been erased, unless the average Italian, of course, is interested in anthroponymy. But often Italians know their family tree and pass on their knowledge to their descendants. Italians are very patriotic and loyal to their homeland and its culture, so you are unlikely to encounter any manifestations of the cultures of other peoples there.
The main sources of origin of Italian surnames:
a) surnames based on the names of fathers, sometimes mothers. We also have, for example, the surnames Ivanov, Petrov, that is, the one who belongs to Ivan, Peter. Only among Italians such a surname will consist of two words, for example, Raffaello di Francesco, where Raffaello is the name, di is the word meaning “of”, Francesco is the father’s name. Thus, it turned out literally: Raffaello from Francesco, which roughly translated can mean “Raffaello son of Francesco.” The word “di” is extremely common in Italian surnames, now we know why and what it means. Sometimes, almost according to the same scheme, surnames were created that carried part of the father’s name and part of the grandfather’s name.
b) surnames that have the basic names of professions. Even now, family workshops and small businesses are quite common among Italians. That is, only relatives of the same family work there. The same thing happened before, in ancient times. And people were assigned certain surnames that would characterize them according to their occupation. Just as we, for example, have the surnames Kuznetsov or Bondar, so the Italians have a surname, for example, Ghirlandaio, which means “who deals with wreaths,” that is, we can assume that this person is a gardener.
c) surnames that have the basis of names of geographical places. This could be the place of residence, birth, craft, which the clan was engaged in. This could be the name of a city, town, river, valley, etc. We also have analogues of such surnames, for example, Alexander Nevsky. So among Italians today the surname Lombardy is very common, which comes from the name of a fairly famous city in Italy.
d) surnames that are based on words that describe certain concepts, phenomena, characters, traits of the person who was endowed with it. Well, for example, we have the surnames Usov, Bolshov, Krasivy, etc. In the same way, Italians were given surnames based on some specific characteristics. For example, Paolo Carino - Paolo Darling, or Antonio Gobbo - Antonio Hunchback. Some of these surnames could be modified: mixed with others, received other suffixes and prefixes.
d) surnames that were given to children without parents, foundlings. The most common surname in this category is Esposito, which literally translates as “abandoned.” We also have an analogue of such surnames, although there are very few of them, for example, Bezymyanny.
Thus, by studying the etymology of surnames, you can even trace what your ancestors were like, where they came from and what they did. Or maybe they were foundlings and orphans.
But the carriers of etymology are not only the bases of surnames, but also prefixes and suffixes.
Suffixes:
a) diminutives: -illo, -etti, -ini, -ino. All of them are designed to downplay the importance of the foundation.
b) exaggerating: -accio, -ucci.
Prefixes (prepositions):
a) to indicate belonging to the clan, the word di is used for the father, as has already been said.
b) the preposition yes is sometimes used to indicate belonging to a certain area. It’s impossible not to remember here famous Leonardo da Vinci.
c) to denote people from other countries, the prepositions lo and la are used.
When people realized what a variety of surnames and nicknames they could give to people, while modifying them in different ways, they reduced the number of names. Therefore, when we hear about Italians, first of all we hear such names as Francesco, Alberto, Antonio, Bernardo, Maria, Anna, Angelo, Paolo, Michel, Bruno, Rosa, Teresa, Laura. Italians do not pretend to have a wealth of names; they are satisfied with the minimum that exists, but they can boast of a variety of surnames.
We owe the very existence of the surname to the ancient Greeks and Romans, but the surname became mandatory only inXVII century in Italy. And since then, the unbridled Italian imagination could no longer be contained: after curious Italian names like “Eighth”, “Wild” or “Impeccable”, the inhabitants of the Apennines can boast of surnames to match them!
But first, a short excursion into history. In ancient Rome, the surname was initially used to distinguish two people with the same name. The surname could echo the person’s name, indicate the area where he came from, or remind him of characteristic features his appearance, including defects. Thus, Marco Tullio Cicero was called Cicero because he had a wart on his nose, Ovid was called “Nosyara”, and Plato’s surname could be interpreted as “Flat Legs” or “Long Ears”.
In modern Italy, only 15 percent of surnames indicate some kind of physical characteristics its owner; approximately 35 percent are a reference to the name of the father or founder of the clan, another 35 percent are reminiscent of the name hometown, village or locality, 10 percent are somehow connected with a profession, craft, position or title, 3 percent are of foreign origin, and the remaining 2 percent are the wish surname given to the foundlings.
Two of the most common surnames in Italy are Rossi and Bianchi, "Red" and "White". Even in Italian language textbooks, these two gentlemen appear in the first texts and dialogues. Rossi and numerous variants of this surname (Rosso, Rossa, Russi, de Rossi, De Russi, Ruggiu, and even Russian!) are nothing more than a reference to the red-haired ancestor of the family. Bianchi and variants of this surname, of course, indicate a blond or simply fair-haired and fair-skinned person. And the inhabitants of the Apennines with the surnames Nero or Negro (and derivatives Negri, Negrini , Negroni) ancestors were probably very dark and black-haired.
But hidden in such famous Italian surnames as Ferrari and Ferrè in Russia is nothing more than the profession of a blacksmith! By the way, the ancestors of the first Italians with the surname Magnani were also blacksmiths, because in the Milanese dialect magnan is just a “smith” or “tinker”.
Another common surname in Bel Paese, especially in the south of the country, Esposito has its roots in the word “esposto”, that is, “abandoned”, “abandoned”. It is not difficult to guess that this surname was given to foundlings, babies left at the doors of churches or on the threshold of houses. A similar surname Degli Esposti was borne by those children who were brought up in orphanages and shelters, in Italian “houses of the abandoned,” that is, degli esposti.
But Casadei and Incerti, in some ways synonymous with the above-mentioned Esposito, are more common in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna. They interpret the theme of orphanhood differently: here Casadei means "house of God" (casa di dio), and Incerti is translated as "unknown father", from the medieval Latin incertis patris. In Lazio, the region whose capital is Rome, the surname Proietto or Proietti, derived from the Italianized term proiectus, is very common, which was also given to foundlings. In southern Sicily and northern Piedmont, abandoned babies were given a surname like Ignoto, D"Ignoti, D"Ignoto, which in Italian means "child of the unknown", and the surname Innocenti is very common in the northern regions of Italy, especially in Tuscany and Lombardy ( or alternatively Innocente) means "innocent". And the surname Trovato, “found”, typical of Sicily and Lombardy, leaves no doubt about its origin.
Do you also have the impression that almost all Italian surnames were given to children abandoned by their parents? But let's not talk about sad things, there are very funny surnames in Italy!
Here, for example, Portafoglio (“wallet”), Sanguedolce (“sweet blood”), Quattrocchi (“four eyes”), Diecidue (“ten two”), Spione (“spy”), Spazzolini (“brushes”), Basta (“basta, that’s enough”) or Gratis (“for free”). There are also surnames and geographical names that don’t even need translation: Berlin, London, Madrid, Australia, Francia, Russia.