Basilicata Last Names

The most common last names from the Basilicata area are those deriving from birthplaces or origins, such as Grieco, Lauria and Montemurro (two cities in the province of Potenza), Cirigliano and Stigliano (from the center of the Matera province), Potenza, Cosentino, Lombardi, Albano, Calabrese, Genovese and Venezia.

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As is common in Puglia and other areas of southern Italy, there is common usage of names that start with an article la - lo - le (meaning the or a). Examples of such surnames are Larocca ("the rock"), Latorre ("the tower"), Laguardia ("the guard"), Labella ("the beautiful"), Lamacchia ("the stain"), La Gioia ("joy"), Lenoci ("the walnuts") , Lovaglio, Lasala, Lasalandra, Larotonda, Lobascio ("the short"), Lo Piccolo ("the little"), Lorusso, Lo Vecchio ("elder"), Logiurato ("the juror"), Loperfido ("perfidious") and Locantore ("the singer"). The last 3 are mostly in the Lucania area.

More specific surnames used in the Basilicata region are Santarsiero, Sileo, Claps, Nolè, Ielpo, Pietrafesa and Labanca.

The category of names deriving from trades isn't very present in this area, but we can cite some examples using the suffix mastro ("master") such as Mastronardi, Mastrangelo and Mastrosimone.
Other popular surnames are those with the suffix papa ("father") Papaleo and Papapietro and tata ("dad") such as Tataranni.

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