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Originally this surname could be COLLIANI.
If so this surname comes from CAMPANIA REGION, Southern Italy, 150 km South from Naples (Napoli).
As most of the Italian surnames ending in "-ano" or "-ani" Colliani could come from a place name: the village of COLLIANO near SALERNO (see Wikipedia for this village).
The origin of the name of this village dates back to roman times, it is not clear:
from the word "collina" or "colle" that is "hill".
From an old roman personal name "Collius" and suffixe "anus" (Collianus).

Most probably the COLLIANI families came from the village of SICIGNANO-DEGLI-ALBURNI. This name has been spelt wrongly in Ellis Island site: Sicequane and Lieignano (horrible indeed!).
Sicignano is near Salerno too.

At the moment in Italy Colliani is an extremely rare surname. There are no traces of Coliani in Italy!

• Coliani - The LP  Dec 30 2006, 2:16:17 PM
  • Re: Coliani - M.Sagani  Dec 31 2006, 3:03:08 AM
  • Re: Coliani - M.Sagani  Dec 31 2006, 2:48:15 AM
  • Re: Coliani - Sean Foglai  Dec 30 2006, 8:22:07 PM