PampoItalian 1 Italian: from a short form of Alampo, from the Greek personal name Eulampios, adjectival derivative of eulampēs ‘most splendid’.... [more]
PanareseItalian habitational name for someone from a place called Panaro (from Latin panarium "bread basket") for example in Siracusa province Sicily or from Panareo in Salento from an adjectival form of the place names.
PanaroItalian metonymic occupational name for a baker, from Latin panarium ‘bread basket’.
PancieraItalian from panciera denoting the piece of the armor covering the stomach (from pancia "belly paunch") perhaps used for an armorer or for someone with a large paunch.
PancioneItalian Means "fat person, paunch, big belly" in Italian.
PancorvoItalian A famous Spanish cave, located in Burgos, where the arabs hid from Spanierds.
PanepintoItalian Derived from the word "pane" meaning "bread" in Italian and "pinto" meaning "painted", "flecked", or possibly "bad". The name is generally given to a baker.
PanichiItalian Probably from panico, a type of millet grown in Italy. Alternately, it could be from the Latin name Panicus "of Pan, panic".
PanozzoItalian Venice, one of the oldest and most beautiful regions of Italy, is the esteemed birthplace of numerous prominent families, and of a family that bears the surname Panozzo. Although people were originally known only by a single name, it became necessary for them to adopt a second name to identify themselves, as populations grew and travel became more frequent... [more]
PanzeriItalian Either a nickname from Italian pancia "belly, paunch", referring to someone with a prominent belly (see Panza), or an occupational name for someone who manufactured girdles and armour, from panciere "corset, girdle; paunce (armour covering the belly)", ultimately from the same root.
PanzicaItalian From Sicilian panzicu "pot-bellied, paunch".
PapaccioItalian The root papa comes from the Greek language, whose Italian translation is literally "priest", but during centuries this was also a term of respect, and this is due to the active influence of Greek and Byzantine culture in southern Italy and specifically in Naples... [more]
PappalardoItalian Means "glutton, hypocrite" in Italian, originally a nickname for a gluttonous person or someone who pretended to observe religious fasts while eating meat in secret.
ParadisoItalian from paradiso "Paradise" applied as a topographic name for someone living in a verdant place where flowers grew in abundance or near a pleasure garden or from the same word used as a personal name recorded in the form Paradisus in Lazio in 108
ParatoreItalian Derived from Italian paratore meaning "decorator, fuller", which refers to a craftsman who fulls coarse cloth. In other words: this surname is the Italian cognate of the English surname Fuller... [more]
ParlettiItalian (Rare) It is a surname of Italian origin, believed to mean "talkative", although few have this surname. Approximately 11 people bear this surname.
PassiItalian, Medieval Italian The surname Passi was first found in the town of Mugello, with the Passerini family who moved south to Florence in the 10th century. Terranova dei Passerini is a comune in the Province of Lodi in the Italian region Lombardy about 50 kilometres (31 miles) southeast of Milan.... [more]
PaternoItalian Italian surname of unknown origin, most likely comes from Paternò in Sicily. Notable individuals include Joe Paterno (1926 - 2012), head coach at Pennsylvania State University until 2011.
PattaItalian Possibly from patta "draw, settlement", perhaps a nickname given to a negotiator. The same term can also mean "heat, warmth of the hearth".
PaveseItalian Means "one from Pavia". Pavia is an Italian town located in Lombardy, northern Italy. It can also derive from pavese, a kind of big, Medieval shield.... [more]
PellicanoItalian, Sicilian nickname from dialect pelecanòpelicanò "woodpecker" from modern Greek pelekanos "green woodpecker" (cognate with pelekan "pelican"; both come from pelekys "axe" the pelican because its beak is shaped like an axe the woodpecker because it uses its beak like an axe).
PernaItalian Meaning uncertain, possibly from the dialectic word perna "leg", denoting someone with a deformed or missing leg, or a variant of Perla.
PernierItalian A famous bearer is the Italian archaeologist Luigi Pernier (1874 - 1937), who discovered the mysterious Phaistos disc on the Greek island of Crete.
PersiaItalian, Spanish Ethnic name or regional name for someone from Persia (modern-day Iran) or some other country with Persian-speaking peoples or a nickname for someone who had visited or traded with one of these countries (see the given name Persis)... [more]
PianaItalian Topographic name from piana ‘plain’, ‘level ground’, from Latin planus, or a habitational name from any of the places named with this word.
PianoItalian Topographic name for someone who lived on a plain or plateau, Italian piano (Latin planum, from the adjective planus ‘flat’, ‘level’).
PicaItalian, Catalan Nickname for a gossipy or garrulous person, from the central-southern Italian word pica ‘magpie’. Compare Picazo.Catalan: habitational name from any of the numerous places called Pica.Catalan: from either pica ‘pointed object’ (weapon, etc.) or a derivative of picar ‘to prick’.
PietrafesaItalian The derivation of the name Pietrafesa comes from the cracked aspect of the mountain on which it rose. In Italian "Pietra" mean Rock and "-fesa" comes from the Italian word fessura meaning cracked.... [more]
PininfarinaItalian A combination of "pinin", Piedmontese for youngest/smallest brother, and Farina, the Italian variant of Miller. This is the name of the Italian coachbuilder, founded by Battista "Pinin" Farina, later Battista Pininfarina.
PinoSpanish, Galician, Italian Spanish and Galician habitational name from any of the places in Galicia (Spain) named Pino from pino "pine" or a topographic name for someone who lived by a remarkable pine tree. Italian habitational name from Pino d'Asti in Asti province Pino Torinese in Torino or Pino Solitario in Taranto all named with pino "pine’... [more]
PisaItalian Habitational name from the city of Pisa in Tuscany. The city was probably founded by Greek colonists, but before coming under Roman control it was in the hands of the Etruscans, who probably gave it its name... [more]
PiscopoItalian From a reduced form of episcopo "bishop" (Greek episkopos "bishop", literally "overseer"), hence a metonymic occupational name for someone in the service of a bishop, or perhaps a nickname for a pompous person.
PisoniItalian patronymic "from Pisone", from a derivative of Piso, from Latin pisum "pea"
PlatiniItalian Occupational name for a person who coats objects with platinum, derived from Italian platinare literally meaning "to platinize, to coat with platinum". A notable bearer is the former French soccer star Michel Platini (1955-).
PoItalian Derived from Po the longest river in Italy (651,8 km). It flows eastward across northern Italy starting from the Cottian Alps across the regions: Piemonte, Lombardia, Emilia-Romagna and Veneto... [more]
PolidoriItalian Means "son of Polidoro". Famous bearers include John William Polidori (1795-1821), a physician to Lord Byron and author of 'The Vampyre' (1819), and his sister Frances Polidori (1800-1886), the mother of painter and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti, poet Christina Rossetti, critic William Michael Rossetti, and author Maria Francesca Rossetti.
PorcelliItalian From Italian porcello, meaning "piglet". Used to denote someone who worked as a swineherd, or perhaps a nickname for someone who resembled a piglet in some way.
PortanovaItalian, Portuguese, Galician Habitational name from a place or locality called Portanova "new gate" from the elements neos "new" and porta "door".
PorteraItalian Occupational name for a female servant, from Spanish portera.
PríncipeItalian, Spanish From principe "prince, heir" (Latin princeps, genitive principis, from primus "first" and capere "to take"), applied probably as a nickname for someone who gave himself airs and graces or for someone in the service of a prince.
PrioreItalian from Italian priore "prior" either a nickname or occupational name which probably most often originated as a metonymic occupational name for a servant of a prior or some important lay dignitary... [more]
ProcidaItalian Habitational name from Procida, one of the Flegrean Islands off the coast of Naples in southern Italy.
ProcopioItalian Italian (Calabria) and Greek (Prokopios): from the personal name Procopio, Greek Prokopios, from pro ‘before’, ‘in front’ + kopē ‘cut’, actually an omen name meaning ‘success’, ‘prosperity’ but as a Church name taken to mean ‘pioneer’ as it was the name of the first victim of Diocletian's persecutions in Palestine in AD 303... [more]
ProiaItalian From the name of a place in Italy. The meaning is uncertain, but it might be derived from Greek πρωία (proía) "morning".
ProiettiItalian From Latin proiecto "abandoned, thrown away", given to foundlings and children abandoned at orphanages. The name may have been taken from la ruota dei proietti, or "foundling wheel", that some orphanages and religious institutes in Italy installed for infants to be anonymously abandoned in.
PugnoItalian The Italian family name Pugno is considered by scholars to be of nickname origin. While the majority of surnames that are derived from a sobriquet or nickname reveal to us some aspect of the physical appearance of the initial bearer of the name or may allude to a characteristic of this person, other nickname family names make reference to a particular piece of clothing or favorite article or indeed a favorite color of the bearer of the name... [more]
PuleoSicilian origin- common name found in Palermo in Scicily
PulsipherItalian (Anglicized) from the nickname meaning "handsome man" of a member of the Italian Pulci family who settled in England around the time of the Norman conquest
PulsoniItalian Probably from Latin pulso "to beat, to strike".
QuintoAragonese, Spanish, Catalan, Italian Habitational surname for a person from a place called Quinto, for example in Zaragoza province. However, the high concentration of the surname in Alacant province suggests that, in some cases at least, it may derive from the personal name Quinto (from Latin Quintus denoting the fifth-born child or Catalan quinto "young soldier").... [more]
RacioppiItalian, Sicilian Derived from Sicilian racioppu meaning "cluster of grapes", hence presumably a metonymic occupational name for someone who sold or produced grapes.
RagostaItalian from aragosta "lobster" used for a shell-fisherman or otherwise as a nickname for someone thought to resemble a lobster in some way.
RagusaItalian Habitational name from Ragusa in Sicily, or from the ancient city of Dubrovnik on the Dalmatian coast of Croatia (Italian name Ragusa).
RaiaItalian, Sicilian Either a topographic name from Sicilian raia ‘smilax’ (a climbing shrub), or else derived from Sicilian raja meaning ‘ray’, or ‘skate’ (the fish), presumably a nickname for someone thought to resemble the fish or a metonymic occupational name for a fisherman or fish seller.
RandazzoItalian Habitational name from a place in Catania called Randazzo. Possibly from a derivative of the personal name Rando.
RapinoItalian From the name of two municipalities in Abruzzo, Italy. It could also be a nickname for a barber, derived from Italian rapare meaning "to crop, to shave, to scalp".
RappaItalian, Sicilian from Sicilian rappa meaning ‘bunch, cluster’ or Italian rappa meaning ‘lock, quiff’, which was presumably applied as a nickname with reference to someone’s hair.
RassiItalian Comes from the Italian rosso, meaning "red".
RealeItalian From reale "royal", either an occupational name for someone in the service of a king or a nickname for someone who behaved in a regal manner.