One site that offers a lot of interesting information about Italian Surnames and how they came to be is Italy World Club. They have broken down the origins of surnames by several categories such as Patronymics, Toponymics, Occupational, Nicknames, and Surnames of Foundlings.
The SURNAME, also called FAMILY NAME, is nowadays added to an original or baptismal name, inherited and held in common by members of a family. The Italian word “cognome” comes from the Latin “cum nomine”, something that accompanies the name. In antiquity no surnames were used, then for the first time in ancient Rome the use of the tria nomina …
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