DeShannon, DiCaprio, & Milano.....What are their origins & meanings ?
DiCaprio & Milano are Italian, but I'm not sure about the origin of DeShannon. Milan is a city in Italy, so I'm guessing that Milano would indicate that the original bearer of this name lived near the city of Milan, Italy. Capri is the name of an island in west Italy. Does DiCaprio possibly designate that the original bearer of this name lived in the island of Capri ? Shannon is the name of a river in Ireland. Is it possible that DeShannon would indicate that the original bearer of this name lived near the Shannon river in Ireland ? What are the origins of these names & what do they mean ?
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I've a couple of theories.

First, and probably wrong, is that the 'Shannon' part is a highly morphed version of some continental city/region. It might be rendered as 'Shannon' by misappropriation or repeated misspelling.

The next two are related in that Irish-Gaelic surnames of Norman-French origin often use the odd prefix 'de.' I say odd because it is used even when incorrect, especially when a name might be more correctly prefixed 'le,' 'de' is used. For example: English 'Power,' French 'Le Poer,' Irish 'de Paor.'

The second theory is that 'DeShannon' belongs to a legitimate Norman family. Many prominent Normans had multiple branches off their family tree, each with individual surnames (six from 'Burke' that I know of). It is possible some minor family named a branch after the river called 'An tSionainn' in Gaelic.

Thirdly, a family may have put on Norman airs and masked a Gaelic name (as the 'Fitzpatricks' did). One of a few could be so disguised: 'Shanahan/Ó Seannacháin,' 'Shinane/Ó Seanáin' or 'Giltenan/Mac Giolla tSeanáin.' All three are have been commonly changed to 'Shannon' in the past

I believe the second and third theories are equal in weight. Either way, the commonality of this 'DeShannon' form seems to be very limited.
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At least for surnames come from the name of the island of Capri: Caprio, Capri, Di Capri, Di Caprio.
Milano is of course from the capital-city of Lombardy:
also Milani and Milan, a venetian surname coming from venetian dialects.Milani is sometimes a jewish surname as well.
But in lombard dialects milano is Milàn or Milà too.
Di Caprio could mean that a family had its origins in Capri.
In fact the family of the american actor Leonardo Di Caprio comes from a village near Caserta, I think.
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Search results for: Shannon
(origin: Gaelic.) From the Shannon, a river of Ireland. The tranquil, gentle river, from sen, gentle, and abhain, a river. Shan-eon, the tranquil river. S before a vowel, in the Gaelic, has the sound of sh. The river Seine, in France, has the same signification. Shanon--the ancient river, from sean, old, and oun or obhain, a river.
http://www.last-names.net/surname.asp?surname=Shannon

So "De Shannon" is "from the ancient/calm river" being the "de" a Spanish, Italian (sometimes I think), French (sometimes again) and at least Portuguese (probably I suppose) version of the English "from" or "of" (according to context)... In modern Spanish speakers there is this machist tendency of saying "María Perez De Souza" if this "María Perez Mencelli" is married to this, let's say to illustrate the point; "Juan Souza Jimenez"... Then "De Souza" could become "DeSouza" as a single surname (meaning "of and from the salty place" being that Souza means "from the salty place")... However in the past it could have been the surname of an Irish settler on Spanish-speaking ground who would answer to questions of "where did you came from?" with the sentence "de Shannon"... ¿Quite a lot just to say that your surname means "from the calm/ancient river? ¿isn't it? Welll... But the question has been answered :D (by the way; I've made posts still needing answers; I will be glad if they get answered by those who can, at least check them please :$) Bye.
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