The Hidden Meaning of Your Last Name

Whenever he sees an Italian last name for the first time, my husband asks me what it means. Nine times out of ten I tell him, "It isn't a word. It's just a name." That changes now. It turns out there is a meaning to the names, but it isn't always obvious.

You see, I've just finished a book by Joseph G. Fucilla titled "Our Italian Surnames". The book covers more than last names, although they are the main focus. I learned so much that I'm a little ticked off that there are so many naming nuances I'd never learned before.

What books are available for names in your ancestors' countries? After reading a couple of novels by Fyodor Dostoevsky this year, I found Russian patronymic names overwhelming. There's a lot to learn about the names in your family tree.

I'm not talking about baby-naming conventions that vary by nationality. The first son is named after the paternal grandfather. The second son is named after the maternal grandfather. No. I'm talking about the origin of Italy's overabundance of last names.

The meaning of the last names in your family tree may be hidden. Discover their origin with the right resource books.

The author breaks Italian name sources into more than 10 categories. He gives tons of examples, so you can expect to find some names from your Italian family tree. He also distinguishes the meanings of the names by the part of the country.

What a surprise to learn that some last names originated by:

• cutting the end off an ancestor's name (Nicola becomes Cola), or
• dropping the middle out of a name (Bernardo becomes Bardo).

There's a whole section in the book showing how descendants of men named Francesco (and several other names) can have surnames you might not expect:

• Scotto, coming from the variant Francescotto
• Chini, coming from the variant Franceschino
• Cicciarelli, coming from the variant Francisco

The author shows a long list of progressions leading from Francesco to something like Chiccione.

Here are a few of the types of names with examples. See any you recognize?

• Human qualities: Forte = strong
• Plants: Garofalo = cornflower
• Geography: LaMotta = landslide
• Animals: Stallone = stallion
• Insects: Vespucci = wasp
• Jobs: Podesta = mayor
• Objects: Botticelli = barrel
• Anatomy: Capone = head

"Our Italian Surnames" covers thousands and thousands of last names. It's available on Genealogical.com.

I have another book, "Le Famiglie Campane" (The Families of Campania) by Fabio Paolucci. It details the more illustrious surnames from the Campania region of Italy. For example, the book includes the name Iadanza. That's the ancestral last name of American actor Tony Danza. It says the name is common in the town of Pietrelcina (that's where Tony's family came from). The author says the name comes from a female ancestor named Abbondanza.

This book is available on Amazon in Kindle format. You can read it on your computer with the Kindle app if you don't have a Kindle device.

Then there's the 3,379-page PDF I downloaded in 2014 by Ettore Rossoni. The title is "L'Origine dei Cognomi Italiani, Storia ed Etimologia" (The Origin of Italian Surnames, History and Etymology). This is a treasure for me because it offers the best explanation of my maiden name, Iamarino. It's a shortened version of an ancestor's name: Giovanni Marino. Giovanni can have a shorter version: Ianni. Shorten Ianni again and you get Ia. So Pietro, the son of Giovanni Marino, is Pietro Ia Marino, then Pietro Iamarino.

This PDF book is available on the Internet Archive. Don't be put off by the archive.org website not using https security protocol. I assure you, it's fine.

One thing I can't understand is why people kept derogatory last names generation after generation. "Our Italian Surnames" mentions tons of insulting last names:

• Barbaro = barbarous
• Vendetta = spiteful person
• Falso = deceitful person
• Mattina = insane person
• Cafone = uncouth
• Caiazzo = simpleton
• Zingaro = vagabond

In Joseph G. Fucilla's book, my grandmother's maiden name of Saracino is a cruel, wicked, or irreligious man. In Ettore Rossoni's book, Saracino is tied to the Arab Saracens, but the word Saracen seems to derive from the Semitic "thief" or "marauder". Yikes!

It's common for Italian emigrants to alter their names to blend in with their adopted country's culture. So why didn't more people shed their belittling names? Did the bad connotation become meaningless over time?

Whatever country holds your roots, there are unique, fascinating gems of culture for you to discover.

And speaking of names:

• When Did Your Ancestors First Use a Last Name?
• Where Did Your Last Name Come From?
• A Deep Dive into Your Family's Last Names