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I LEARNED FROM A SOCIOLOGY BOOK THAT THIS NAME WAS ORIGINALLY ITALIAN 'CAPPABIANCA' HEAD WHITE. MY NAME IS BELIEVED TO BE ORIGINALLY HURDENBACHER (GERMAN?) I'M INTERESTED IN LEARNING THE GERMAN (OR OTHER) TRANSLATION OF THIS OR COMPONENTS OF THIS NAME.
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There is no such name as Hurdenbacher but Hurd does exist as a German surname as you can see at http://www.verwandt.de/karten/absolut/hurd.html. A Bavarian named Hurd emigrated to the US in the mid nineteenth century as shown at http://tr.im/vrXV
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Whitehead is an English surname with a pretty obvious meaning, identifying someone with white hair. It may be that Italian emigrants settling in English-speaking countries have changed their name to Whitehead, that being a straight translation of Capabianca. There is also a German surname,Weisskopf, and a Dutch surname, Witcop, with the same meaning. These too might have become Whitehead in some instances.
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The Italian equivalent is actually Capobianco. French has Têteblanche.
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... and Capabianca is probably a regional variant.
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It wouldn't seem so since this form doesn't seem to exist in Italy as shown at http://gens.labo.net/it/cognomi/genera.html. The American Capabiancas must have had their name modified since capo 'head' is masculine.
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