Italian American Last Name Generator

Southern roots of Italian American surnames

About four million Italians came to the United States between 1880 and 1920, and the large majority came from the south: Campania, Calabria, Basilicata, Apulia, Abruzzo and Sicily. That is why the most common Italian American surnames, such as Russo, Esposito, Romano, Marino, Caruso, Lombardo and Messina, lean southern. Esposito, one of the most frequent Neapolitan names, comes from the word for exposed and was once given to children left at foundling homes in Naples.

Many southern surnames describe a place, a trade or a trait. Messina and Palermo name Sicilian cities, Ferraro means blacksmith, and Russo, the southern form of Rossi, meant red, probably for red hair. Surnames beginning with De or Di usually mean of or son of, as in De Luca, son of Luca. Endings shift with region too: southern names often end in o, while northern Italy favours endings in i, as in Rossi, Bianchi and Ferrari.

The Ellis Island name change myth

Many families say their name was changed at Ellis Island, but historians find little evidence for it. Inspectors there did not write down names. They checked each arriving passenger against a ship manifest that had been prepared at the port of departure, usually by clerks in Naples, Palermo or Genoa who spoke Italian. Interpreters worked on the island to help with questions. A name that reached New York spelled one way on the manifest normally left Ellis Island spelled exactly the same way.

Changes did happen, but later and usually by choice. Families simplified spellings at school, at work, on naturalization papers or to avoid prejudice, which was real in the early twentieth century. Some translated their names, some dropped a final vowel, and many joined particles to the name that followed, turning De Luca into DeLuca and Di Napoli into DiNapoli. Capitalised forms like DeMarco and DiMaggio are characteristically American and rarely written that way in Italy.

Picking names with the Italian American last name generator

Think about where and when your family lives. An Italian American family in Brooklyn, Boston's North End, South Philadelphia, New Orleans or San Francisco might share a name, but third generation descendants in the suburbs may pronounce it very differently from their grandparents, often with a silent final vowel. Use the common setting for recognisable names like Russo, Romano or Esposito, and the rare setting for regional names that suggest a specific town. The starts with filter set to De or Di finds Americanized particle names quickly.

Italian American first names changed by generation, from Giuseppe and Concetta in the immigrant era, to Anthony, Frank, Rosemarie and Dolores among their children, to Michael, Nicole and Gianna today. Test each era in the first name preview: Concetta Lombardo and Nicole DeLuca tell two different family stories. For a baby, the meanings can connect a child to a grandparent's hometown. Save favourites, share the list by link, or download a TXT file with meanings.