Italian Last Names

Serching for your roots and Italian last names? In this page you'll find some interesting facts on Italy and common Italian family names.


The “cognome” or family name in Italian, was born in Europe between the X and XI century when there was a demographic explosion and it became difficult to identify people with the first name only.

Most family names come from a christian name, a place or a nickname.

Other common family name sources are the occupation, the social status of a physical characteristic. For example “Rossi”, the most common Italian name means red and might refer to an ancestor with ruddy complexion or red hair.

Initially only the richest families were using a last name, then during the XIII century more people started to use a family name.

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The Council of Trent in 1564 ordered the parish priests to keep records of christenings and family names to avoid weddings within the same family.

These are the 10 most popular names in Italy:Rossi, Russo, Ferrari, Esposito, Bianchi, Romano, Colombo, Ricci, Marino, Greco.

And these are some of the most common names in Le Marche region:Conti, Mancini, Agostinelli, Rossi, Capomagi, Moroni, Marchetti, Giusti, Romagnoli, Pasqualini, Barchiesi, Cerioni, Cesaroni, Borioni.

Often the name ending can be twisted in a different final, like Cesari can become Cesaroni, Cesaretti, Cesarotti or Cesarini. Typically last names from Le Marche end in -oni.





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