The surname Cece?

**Stefan** · 11-10-2009, 02:44 AM

I am wondering if anybody can help me here. This name appears in my Grandmother's French side. The origin of the name seems to be Italian though. This is quite weird because the last ancestor with this name that I can track, was from Bretagne(I tracked up until the 1750s), just like my Grandmother's french ancestry is almost fully from Bretagne. It also seems to be scattered all over Europe(germany, british isles,etc) when using this website. It seems to be at it's peak in central Italy though. So if this surname is Italian, why is it so scattered? Could that mean I have very distant ancestor from Italy. I have the weirdest names in my ancestry....

**~~Guapo~~** · 11-10-2009, 02:48 AM

from cece, cecio "chick pea" or a nickname for a man with a growth or lump on his face. Hope that helps, kiddo.

**~~Osweo~~** · 11-10-2009, 02:58 AM

If that chickpea derivation is correct, then it's the same derivation as the name of the great Roman statesman and thinker Cicero.

Oh, and Stefan, it's an age of mass mobility. You'll have to think of a way to test distribution in the old days. It's easy for Britain, you can compare nowadays with 1881 on a surname map at the National Trust website. I fear it might not be so easy for Italy.

**Bard** · 11-15-2009, 03:30 PM

Originally Posted by El Guapo

from cece, cecio "chick pea" or a nickname for a man with a growth or lump on his face. Hope that helps, kiddo.

I've read the same somewhere on the net.
By the way central italy should be correct, to be more accurate. the area south-east of Rome called Ciociaria.
Here a map of the Cece in Italy.
http://gens.labo.net/en/cognomi/gene...l?cognome=CECE
I'm sorry that I can't be more helpful being italian but seems to be a quite uncommon surname (I've found way more info on my mother's one).

**Stefan** · 11-21-2009, 11:28 PM

Thanks for the help El Guapo, Osweo, and Bard. So do you think this name is an old Latin deviated one, or is it from a more recent Italian ancestor? It is just weird to see an Italian name in Brittany(Bretagne), unless I'm wrong here.

**~~Osweo~~** · 11-22-2009, 12:31 AM

Originally Posted by Stefan

Thanks for the help El Guapo, Osweo, and Bard. So do you think this name is an old Latin deviated one, or is it from a more recent Italian ancestor? It is just weird to see an Italian name in Brittany(Bretagne), unless I'm wrong here.

I doubt ANY name descends in an unbroken lineage from Roman times, even in Italy itself.

**Stefan** · 11-22-2009, 04:59 PM

Originally Posted by Osweo

I doubt ANY name descends in an unbroken lineage from Roman times, even in Italy itself.

I was talking about a French or Gaulish deviation of the Latin word, Cecio or the Cicero that you mentioned. Basically I was asking could it have originated in France as it is today, instead of Italy and what are the chances of that? I worded it wrongly.