Italian Last Names

Last names, also called family names or surnames, came into practice around 14th century when the need of a second name was proposed so as to recognize individuals having the same name. The specialty of Italian last names is that they end with a vowel that makes them easily recognizable as well. Italian last names play a huge role in distinguishing or tracing the origin of the Italian heritage and ancestry.

A detailed study about the Italian last names leads us to the fact that Italian names have developed from distinct sources, these sources were occupation, patronym, toponymic, description, etc. These factors are more or less the same deciding factors for last names of other ethnic groups as well.

Origin of Italian Last Names

• Occupational Last Names: These last names were based on the kind of job the family performed for decades. Such occupational last names are 'Contadino' or 'Zappa' for farmer, 'Forni' or 'Farina' for baker and 'Martelli' for carpenter.
• Patronymic Last Names: These names are given by the father or, more rarely, by the mother. This is generally indicated by a prefix like 'von', 'van', 'de', 'di', etc. for instance 'Di Giovanni' (Johnson), 'D'Angelo', 'De Luca', etc.
• Toponymic Names: Here people were named according to the region in which the person's family resided initially. The place can be a local area such as 'La porta', 'Montana', 'Fontana', 'Della Valle', etc., as well as the geographical region of Italy like 'Milani', 'Napolitano', or 'Di Geniva'.
• Nicknames as Last Names: This was a unique tradition that was followed while forming Italian last names. Several personality traits, features, and characteristics of an individual were used to indicate him hence, they became last names of his family. For instance, 'Selvaggi' for savage and 'Poccoli' for short! Some of the most familiar Italian last names, based on such nicknames are 'Grossi', 'Rossi', 'Morelli', 'Gatto', 'Cavallo', 'Lepore', 'Allegretti', 'Volpe', etc.

Common Italian Last Names

• Bianchi
• Bruno
• Colombo
• Conti
• Costa
• De Luca
• Esposito
• Ferrari
• Gallo
• Giordano
• Greco
• Lombardi
• Mancini
• Marino
• Moretti
• Ricci
• Rizzo
• Romano
• Rossi
• Russo

Italian Last Names List

Aiello	Abatantuono	Alda
Alfonso	Angeli	Bertinelli
Angeli	Durante	Braschi
Alfonso	Arcuri	Argento
Armetta	Autieri	Baggio
Bancroft	Barale	Basilone
Belvedere	Benigni	Bertinelli
Borrelli	Braschi	Canalis
Capotondi	Caprioglio	Cardano
Carell	Celentano	Chiatti
Ciarlo	Ciricillo	Colombari
Compagnoni	Crenna	Cucinotta
D'Onofrio	Damato	Danza
De Filippo	DeLuise	DeSare
DeVito	DiMaggio	Durante
Fabian	Falchi	Ferilli
Filangieri	Francis	Fubini
Funicello	Galiena	Gerini
Giannini	Giarrusso	Gravina
Grazia	Grimaldi	Guerritore
Imbruglia	Lampanelli	Lanza
Lippucci	Luttazzi	Manfredi
Mantegna	Marciano	Martin
Mastroianni	Monte	Napolitano
Nero	Palminteri	Parmiggiano
Peano	Pezzo	Pravo
Prima	Quatro	Ramazzotti
Rea	Stefani	Tartaglia
Toffoli	Tomba	Trieste
Valentino	Verdone	Zucchero

Famous Italian Last Names

• De Niro
• Fonda
• Bello
• Bellucci
• Cage
• Costello
• Cardinale
• Coca
• DiCaprio
• DeVito
• D'Aquino
• Ferrari
• Giorgi
• Pacino
• Pesci
• Sinatra
• Stallone
• Travolta

Italian Last Names Trivia

• Longest Italian last names: Tschurtschenthaler, Di Francescantonio, Pasquadibisceglie, Mastroberardino, Monterubbianesi, Mastrofrancesco, Castrogiovanni, Colafranceschi, Abbracciavento.
• Shortest Italian last names: Bo, Pe, Po, Re, Mo, My, Hu, Wu.

There is one more tradition as far as Italian last names are concerned and that is to adopt the name of a religious institution, or any establishment and civil record of Italy as the last name of the family. Isn't that unique? This is not an exhaustive list, and a lot more names could have been added to it, however, the aforementioned information with a few examples was just so that you get an idea of what an Italian name should sound like.