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Re: Scimeca
in reply to a message by Lea
According to the Dictionary UTET of Italian surnames this sicilan surname has no sure origin. It could be a variant of other sicilian surnames like Scimè or Scimemi. The last one could come from a first name like Simone (Simon).
Italian slavic surname are beared mainlyin Abruzzi region, on the adriatic coast, not so much in Sicily and of course in Trieste area or Friuli region.
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As a matter of fact, a lot of Italian regions have been affected by Slavic immigrations in the past, both on the Adriatic or Eastern coast of Italy (Abruzzo, Marche, Molise, Puglia, etc) and on the hinterland or Western areas of the country (Campania, Basilicata, Sicily, etc). Back in the day there were even some Slavic speaking areas in Italy (mostly on the Adriatic coast), a well-known example is the touristic town of Peschici in Puglia.
As for Italian surnames, you might as well check the distribution of surnames such as Schiavo, Schiavone, Schiavi, Schiavoni, Scavo, Scavone, etc (all of them mean "Slav" in Old Italian), you will see how widespread the Slavic migratory waves were throughout the Italian territory in the past (http://www.gens.labo.net/).
In short, all this doesn't mean that Scimeca is definitely a Slavic-Italian surname but, if you take the ethnical background of Italian people into account, then this theory is not really so unlikely.
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