With the holiday season upon us I thought it would be nice to talk about some holiday inspired Italian names. Some names that come to mind are Natale (Christmas) Grazia (Grace) and Bifano (Epiphany). All have been used as first or surnames. A quick search on Searching the Enhanced Ellis Island Database in One Step […]
Morabito Last name origin & meaning: Italian (Sicily): nickname for a teetotaler, Sicilian murabbitu, from Arabic murābịt ‘hermit’, ‘ascetic’. According to the Genealogy Family Education website, this surname is actually a derivative of the Arabic surname of Murabit meaning hermit. Facebook has a whole group devoted to this surname – Morabito.. more than a name, […]
Italian surnames have changed so much in the past century. Almost everyone I meet has a story about how their surname was changed at Ellis Island upon their ancestor’s entry in to the US. The truth of the matter is that names were not usually changed at Ellis. Manifest lists were complied and written in […]
