Hi I have some questions about Calabrian, and Sicilian last names.

Does anyone here know anything about last names from those regions of Italy, and the history of them?

If so I have some questions for you.

Or does this vary by city, town, village, commune, and province?

If it does I want to know some common last names from Cosenza Calabria, and in or around Palermo Sicily.

Feel free to send me a private message if you want to.

Any information about last names in Italy and Sicily would be helpful.

Im not really sure what you're going for, but if you use a site like this one you can put in the last name and it will show you the regions in italy where that name is most common. and i know its pretty accurate cause i put in my name and it came up with the part of sicily where my fathers parents came from. hope this helps-

http://www.italianames.com/italian-last-names-maps/

as far as the history of names, sorry can't help you.

And what do you do for the Irish side, drink a beer and hope for the best?

something like that and if beer doesn't work whiskey usually does the trick

Thanks for the link.

I looked up a Calabrian last name from my family and it's highly accurate as most of the people are from a certain region. What surprised me is how many people with that last name are in the North but I guess they moved from Calabria to the north in Piedmont.

I also looked up a relative by marriage who is Italian and the map was accurate for that last name as well.

I also looked up Sicilian last names that friends of mine have and it showed them where their great-grandparents or grandparents were from in Sicily.

About 10 years ago I purchased the manifests from Ellis Island showing both sets of my grandparents and my father's traveling info. As a Christmas gift, I put together an photo album of sorts with different info on the Italian heritage theme.

I don't remember exactly what site I got the info from but I could put in my last name and a map of Italy/Sicily would indicate approximately how many ppl with that last name there were in Italy. The most common Italian last name throughout Italy was Rossi.



TIS

And if I'm not mistaken, one of the three or four most common Italian surnames in The United States is Russo. That's not a coincidence. Ellis Island was famous for clerical errors (and not just Vito Andolini's ).

Ellis Island got my grandparents/father's name correct. My mom's older sister was born in Italy and came with my grandparents. Her first name was not correct, but I deduced it was her because of her age and the destination address was the same as my grandparents.

Btw,among the many questions asked on the ship manifest, was how much money you have with you. Both my grandparents came here with $25. Amazing isn't it?

Whenever I see the GF scene of young Vito on the ship, passing the Statue of Liberty, and the beautiful Immigrant theme, I get chills imagining how scary it must have been for my grandparents AND what guts it took to leave your country and family.



TIS

Is the Southern Italian last name Provenzano Sicilian, Calabrian, or both? Or did a lot of people from Sicily from that family move to Calabria since it is close?

You have to realize that names are not as mutually exclusive to Italian regions as they used to be. There has been a lot of inter-country, as well as intra-country migration in Italy these past hundred years. Especially those names derived from towns. I've known Napolitanos who didn't come from Naples, as well as Salernos who weren't from Campania. It happens.

OK. This would have been about 200 years ago. I was doing genealogical research and found that last name.

Veasey