Most common surnames in Sicily by town.

[Volscian]

Macaluso might have an Arabic root.

Yes and it seems to mean freed.

[alfieb]

@Alfieb
The mother of a friend of mine is from Favara(AG) and her surname is Bellavia. Is it common enough?

Bellavia is the #18 surname in Favara.

[alfieb]

Thoughts:

Two towns have Catalano, one has Portogallo. I would expect Iberian names to be commonplace in Messina/Catania, but not Palermo.

One town has Passafiume. I met a cab driver in Sicily with this surname once, and he claimed that in his dialect, his surname meant to fart / pass gas. It does not, however, in Palermitan Sicilian, where the usual word for this is pìditu.

A number of towns have Albanese as a top surname. This is not surprising, given the relationship between Palermo and Albanians. What I did find very surprising is where the surname is popular: Blufi, Bompietro, and Polizzi Generosa are neighbors, yet all very far from the city of Palermo itself, and far from the Arbereshe-speaking villages. There must have been an Albanian village in this part of the province in the past, or Albanians must have chosen to migrate to the Madonie mountains for some reason unknown to me.

Between the five Arbereshe villages, all of them have either Schirò, Cuccia, or both as top surnames. Those families clearly predominate.

Palermo is the #1 surname in Santa Cristina Gela, an Arbereshe village. It does not come within the top 3 in any other town in the province of Palermo. This lends credence to my theory that some place name surnames are only adopted by foreigners. Perhaps the Messina's, etc. are of Jewish origin.

What is indisputable is that the surname David, found only in Polizzi Generosa, is blatantly Jewish in origin, and has not even been nativized by throwing a vowel at the end (eg Davide).

[Volscian]

Bellavia is the #18 surname in Favara.

Thanks

[alfieb]

I'll get around to doing Enna, but in the meantime if anyone has any particular interest in one of the villages in the Western half of Sicily (Caltanissetta, Agrigento, Palermo or Trapani), I can post up to the top 20 surnames for that town.

For instance, my partial hometown of Castellammare del Golfo, Trapani:

1. Navarra
2. Galante
3. Messina
4. Caleca
5. Stabile
6. Palazzolo
7. D'Angelo
8. Barone
9. Di Bartolo
10. Como
11. Asaro
12. Gioia
13. Ciaravino
14. Bosco
15. Colomba
16. Longo
17. D'Anna
18. Magaddino
19. Cruciata
20. [Variant spelling of D'Anna]


Not surprising that about I know people with half of these surnames, and about 1/3 of them are in my family.

[Tacitus]

I'll get around to doing Enna, but in the meantime if anyone has any particular interest in one of the villages in the Western half of Sicily (Caltanissetta, Agrigento, Palermo or Trapani), I can post up to the top 20 surnames for that town.

For instance, my partial hometown of Castellammare del Golfo, Trapani:

1. Navarra
2. Galante
3. Messina
4. Caleca
5. Stabile
6. Palazzolo
7. D'Angelo
8. Barone
9. Di Bartolo
10. Como
11. Asaro
12. Gioia
13. Ciaravino
14. Bosco
15. Colomba
16. Longo
17. D'Anna
18. Magaddino
19. Cruciata
20. [Variant spelling of D'Anna]


Not surprising that about I know people with half of these surnames, and about 1/3 of them are in my family.

Casteltermini (AG)?

[alfieb]

1. De Marco
2. Severino
3. Di Liberto
4. Varsalona
5. Schifano
6. Calderone
7. Di Piazza
8. Spoto
9. Lo Re
10. Galione
11. Consiglio
12. Cordaro
13. Sanfilippo
14. Minnella
15. Reina
16. Magri
17. D'Urso
18. Capozza
19. Pellitteri
20. Durso

[Sikeliot]

Do Taormina?

[alfieb]

When I get to Messina, sure. Probably Enna next, then Messina, then Catania, then Syracuse, then finish with Ragusa.

[paksaltopam]

Como is the only one familiar to me!