This Map Shows EXACTLY Where Your Italian Family Came From
Named By Italy
195,951 views
The last three letters of your Italian surname are a compass. Endings, prefixes and spellings survived as dialect fingerprints, and each one points at a different corner of Italy. A name ending in I leans north. A name ending in O leans south. A name beginning with Lo or La points at Sicily and almost nowhere else. We trace fifteen Italian surname patterns through dialect and parish records to decode Italian ancestry, surname meaning and name etymology for every Italian American family.
The patterns in this video:
Regional names: Lombardi, Toscano, Calabrese, Napolitano
The I N I ending
The E T T I and E L L I endings
Names beginning with Lo and La
The I and O split: Ferrari and Ferraro, Rossi and Russo
The U Z Z O and U C C I O endings
The O N E and A C C I O endings
Venetian names that stop without a vowel
De and Di
The colour names, and why they tell you nothing
Trade names that changed at every mountain pass
Saint names
Sea and island names
The E S E ending, and the Arbereshe
Foundling surnames
Slavic and Greek borderland names
Place names, and how to find yours on a map tonight
One honest note: this is about names and records, not DNA. A surname preserves a word, not a bloodline. It is a compass needle, not a certificate.
Tell us where you're listening from and which surname you'd like decoded. Any name, any origin.
You were named by Italy.
Sources: Emidio De Felice, Dizionario dei cognomi italiani; Enzo Caffarelli and Carla Marcato, I cognomi d'Italia; Gerhard Rohlfs, Dizionario storico dei cognomi.
#ItalianSurnames #Ancestry #FamilyHistory
20 Comments
Your analysis is very detailed and very accurate. The only thing I’d like to add is that surnames ending in “TTI”—such as Rossetti, Moretti, Gatti, and Benedetti—are from the north, from Tuscany.
Congratulations.
My mother put together papers for her 5 children with of all the information about our Families heritage, including names, towns & dates!
I'm glad she cared enough about our families history, so it could never be Lost & past on to our Families future generations!❤️
La Famiglia E Tutto!
(Translation)
Family is Everything !
Fathers Side: Paciello, Natiella, Barone, Raga
Mother's Side: Tuccillo, DiDio, Migliore, DePersia
I am curious about the name DePersia. Can I assume at one point the ancestors came for Persia?
Mother’s side is Guardino (Sicily?)
Also, Sicilian isn’t a dialect of Italian, it’s a regional language.
There are provincial variations.
My brother visited, and said everyone’s last name in that village was Poccia!
I belive this is where my family is from
This Map Shows EXACTLY Where Your Italian Family Came From
Named By Italy
195,951 views
The last three letters of your Italian surname are a compass. Endings, prefixes and spellings survived as dialect fingerprints, and each one points at a different corner of Italy. A name ending in I leans north. A name ending in O leans south. A name beginning with Lo or La points at Sicily and almost nowhere else. We trace fifteen Italian surname patterns through dialect and parish records to decode Italian ancestry, surname meaning and name etymology for every Italian American family.
The patterns in this video:
Regional names: Lombardi, Toscano, Calabrese, Napolitano
The I N I ending
The E T T I and E L L I endings
Names beginning with Lo and La
The I and O split: Ferrari and Ferraro, Rossi and Russo
The U Z Z O and U C C I O endings
The O N E and A C C I O endings
Venetian names that stop without a vowel
De and Di
The colour names, and why they tell you nothing
Trade names that changed at every mountain pass
Saint names
Sea and island names
The E S E ending, and the Arbereshe
Foundling surnames
Slavic and Greek borderland names
Place names, and how to find yours on a map tonight
One honest note: this is about names and records, not DNA. A surname preserves a word, not a bloodline. It is a compass needle, not a certificate.
Tell us where you're listening from and which surname you'd like decoded. Any name, any origin.
You were named by Italy.
Sources: Emidio De Felice, Dizionario dei cognomi italiani; Enzo Caffarelli and Carla Marcato, I cognomi d'Italia; Gerhard Rohlfs, Dizionario storico dei cognomi.
#ItalianSurnames #Ancestry #FamilyHistory
I read every comment. I cannot answer them all, and the number is growing faster than I can keep up with.
Once a month I make a video decoding surnames from this comment section. Anyone who sends a Super Thanks goes on that list first, but plenty of names get picked without one.