Abruzzo Last Names

The Abruzzo region, although geographically positioned in central Italy, its' traditions, culture,dialect and economy are tied to the southern part of the peninsula. Despite this the most common last names do not have the typically southern preposition of De but Di followed by the name.

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The most common examples of this are Di Paolo ("son of Paolo"), Di Francesco, Di Marco, Di Pietro ("son of Pietro") and Di Carlo. The only exception is De Luca which in fact originates from the Campania region.

Another peculiarity of the region is the use of rare or almost extinct names such as Muzio, Amario, Giacinto, Intimo, Cinzio, Ascenzo, Prinzio, Annunzio, Addario, Girolamo, Berardino, Bonaventura, Aloisio (from Luigi), Di Biase (from Biagio), Luzio (from Lucio), Censo (from Vincenzo), Iorio (from Giorgio) and Cola (from Nicola).

D'Angelo and Rossi take a prominant position in the surname ratings from Abruzzo, as do surnames ending in -is from Latin. De Amicis, De Dominicis, De Leonardis, De Berardinis and with a Latin influence the suffix -ibus mostly present in the north of the region such as: De Benedictis, De Vincentiis, De Iuliis, De Felicibus, De Sanctis, De Laurentiis, De Horatiis, De Leonibus, De Matthaeis and De Fidelibus.

Regarding the category of surnames deriving from nicknames, we have : Malandra, Scimia ("chimp"), Cavallo ("horse"), Mammarella, Zappacosta, Cornacchia ("crow"), Cetrullo, Cipollone ("big onion"), Ciuffini ("little tuft"), Ciocca ("strand"), Pelliccione ("furry"), Di Berardino, Di Sabatino, Giansante and Iezzi.