Showing posts with label Wikipedia. Show all posts

Italian Surname Endings - Northern Italy  

Posted by: Italian Surname Database in , , ,

Did you know you can tell a lot about an Italian Surnames origin by it's ending?  Or that generally speaking surnames in Southern regions of Italy end in vowels but as one moves North many surnames will end in consonants?  This can possibility be attributed to the fact that Northern Italy borders have changed several times over the centuries and belonged to other European countries so surnames were "grandfathered' in.

Some examples of such surnames and the regions they can found in are:

Anzil - Fruili-Venezia Giulia
Bionaz - Valle d'Aosta
Conchin - Friuli-Venezia Giulia,  Lombardy, Piemonte
De Pellegrin - Fruili-Venezia Giulia
De Sanctis -  Abruzzo, Lazio, Lombardy
Orbel - Piemonte
Perin - Veneto, Lombardy
Rigonat - Fruili-Venezia Giulia
Schiff -  Fruili-Venezia Giulia

Other  surname endings found in Northern regions include:

Suffix
Region
Example
- otti/utti 
Fruili, Lombardy   
Pascutti
- otti/utti 
Emilia Romagna, Lombardy, Trentino
Bortolotti
-aci/ecci/ucci 
Tuscany 
Ghelarducci
-ai  
Lombardy, Tuscany
Mungai
-u, -as and -is
Sardinia
Piccinnu, Marras,
Floris, Melis 

**Sources**

1. Italian Surname Database - accessed 6 Jul 2013

2. Gens-Italia - accessed 6 Jul 2013

3. Webpages by  Stephen P. Morse , San Francisco - accessed 6 July 2013

4. Wikipedia  - accessed 6 Jul 2013
  

Post a Comment

Common Suffixes in Surnames  

Posted by: Italian Surname Database in ,

From Wikipedia..

A large number of Italian surnames end in i, due to the medieval Italian habit of identifying families by the name of the ancestors in the plural (which have an -i suffix in Italian). For instance, Filippo from the Ormanno family (gli Ormanni) would be called "signore Filippo degli Ormanni" ("Mr. Filippo of the Ormannos"). In time, the middle possessive portion ("of the") was dropped, but surnames became permanently pluralized and never referred to in the singular, even for a single person. Filippo Ormanno would therefore be known as Filippo Ormanni.[5] Some families, however, opted to retain the possessive portion of their surnames, for instance Lorenzo de' Medici literally means "Lorenzo of the Medici" (de' is a contraction of dei, also meaning "of the"; c.f. The Medicis).

Some common suffixes indicate endearment (which may also become pluralized and receive an -i ending), for example:

  • -ello/illo/etto/ino (diminutive "little"), e.g., Bernardino, Bernardello
  • -one (augmentative "big"), e.g., Mangione
  • -accio/azzo/asso (pejorative[6]), e.g., Boccaccio
Other endings are characteristic of certain regions:[2]
  • Veneto: -asso, -ato and consonants (l, n, r): Bissacco, Zoccarato, Cavinato, Brombal, Francescon, Meneghin, Perin, Peron, Vazzoler
  • Sicily: -aro, -isi and "osso": Cavallaro, Puglisi, Rosso (Sicily and Veneto)
  • Lombardy: -ago/ghi and -ate/ati: Salmoiraghi, Bonati
  • Friuli: -otti/utti and -t: Bortolotti, Pascutti, Codutti, Rigonat
  • Tuscany: -ai and -aci/ecci/ucci: Bollai, Balducci
  • Sardinia: -u, -as and -is: Pusceddu, Schirru, Marras, Argiolas, Floris, Melis, Abis
  • Piedmont: -ero, -audi, -asco,-zzi: Ferrero, Rambaudi, Comaco, Bonazzi
  • Calabria: -ace: Storace
  • Campania: -iello: Borriello
Side note Accuracy of article - all information on this article is sourced. It is worth looking through the sources for additional information.

    Post a Comment