Marche Last Names

The most common surnames in the Marche are those which are typical to this region such as Capriotti, Bartolucci, Sabbatini, Traini, Bartolucci, Cingolani and Principi and those present in all of the peninsular or related to neighbouring regions such as Costantini, Mariani, Mancini, Ricci, Giuliani, Valentini and Luciani.

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Unlike the rest of Italy, there are a large number of family names deriving from nicknames, noble titles and crafts. Amongst the most common we have Moretti, Conti ("counts") Cardinali ("cardinals"), Principi ("prince"), Fabbri ("locksmiths"), Fabbri, Sartini, Piccioni ("pigeons"), Mancinelli, Rossi ("reds"), Rossi ("curly"), Grilli ("cricket insect"), Spadoni ("broadswords"), Ciotti (from the word zoppi "lame"), Gentili ("kind"), Burattini ("puppets"), Gobbi ("hunch-backed").

Of particular importance in the region are those surnames that have a suffix, such as Santarelli, Paolinelli, Belardinetti and Ceccarelli, those ending in -ini: Alessandrini, Cecchini, Angelini, Rossini, Paolini, in -etti: Marchetti, Ferretti, Paoletti, Rossetti, Simonetti, Marinelli, in -elli, -oni and -ucci: Agostinelli, Antonelli and Mancinelli, Marconi, Baldoni, Carloni and Santoni, Pascucci, Bartolucci and Balducci.

It is not surprising to find the surname Marchegiani spread all over the Marche area, but its origins are curious, in that it is tied to the nickname given to the tax collectors who collected the taxes for the Church. Marchigiano developed the derogatory meaning of fraud.

Last but not least, we have the surnames connected to a persons' origin such as Romagnoli (from Romagna), Perugini (from Perugia), Pesaresi (from Pesaro), Schiavoni ("Slavic") and Albanesi (from Albania) and those related to the mountains Montesi and Montanari.

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