In our previous article we presented the way Italians have popularized their last names and now it’s time to explore the land of the funniest surnames and to find their meanings and uncover their stories. Their imagination has no end or barrier, as they were able to create surnames from the names of birds, animals, insects, objects, food and all sorts of strange, or plain, but funny things to be called by.
Here are some examples you might have heard of: Rana – frog, Ratti – rat, Bazzoli – protruding chin, Berlusconi – cross-eyed, Buonarroti – good increase, Capello – a hair, Esposito – exposed, Lombardi – long beard, Manco – left-handed, Moschella – housefly, Nasato – nose, Quattrocchi – four eyes, Uccello – birdcatcher. They even have a surname Incogniti, that was invented in order to identify a family who had an abandoned child.
In today’s article, we have chosen to make you laugh by telling you the stories of five funny last names from different regions of Italy:
- Bellagamba – This Italian surname is composed of two Italian words – bella, which means “beautiful” and gamba – “leg” and put together they put a smile on some faces. As one can guess, it was first a nickname, probably to identify a person with very nice legs and it’s original from the province of Genoa, but can be encountered in Ferrara and part of Tuscany. Although it seems like is quite strange for someone who is not Italian, their neighbors whom they share the border with, the French people seem to have the same type of humor regarding this name, as the French variant is Bellejambe or Bellegambe, which is used in Ardens and Normandy, in France.
- Fumagalli – This hilarious Italian surname comes from a nickname that means “poultry thief” and the literal translation is “smoke the roosters”, from a dialect word fumà – which is a slang for the verb “to steal” and the word galli – “roosters”. This whole name denominates a method used by thieves in which they would stun the roosters or chickens with damp leaves and sulfur to keep them quiet while stealing them. It was originally recorded as Fumagallo in 1644 and is widespread throughout Lombardy, in the provinces of Milan and Lecco, where the ancient village of Fumagallo is.
- Cantalupi/Cantaloupe – Other languages that have Latin origins could easily understand the meaning of this name, which comprises two Italian words, the verb canta, which is the action of singing and the word lupi – “wolves”. This last name takes after a region in Italy, where the papal states are, called Cantalupo, placed in the mountains, from where the inhabitants could hear the wolves howling at night, therefore it’s a toponym name. Some say it finds echo in the Greek expression kata-lupon which can be translated as “located in the middle of the woods”, while others affirm that it has to do with the Bulgarian expression Kan teleped, – “chief residence”, from the time the Bulgarians established their presence in that place. This surname is typical to other Italian regions: Campagna, Salermo in the south, but also present in the northern part, in Modena.
- Mangiapane – Moving on to a gourmet name that sounds like it was fresh out from the oven, since we are talking about the country where the delicious home-made bread is an important part of the diet. It has its roots in the Sicilian area of Italy and presumably in the Italian expression mangiapane a ufo, that finds its translation in a quantity expression – “in unspecified quantities, at will” or even “free of charge”, which could designate a slacker or a lazy person who eats humongous quantities of food in lack of anything to do. There are other surnames with the same root word: Mangiacapra, Mangiacasale, Mangiafico, Mangiagalli and Mangiatordi.
- Tuttoilmondo – This Italian surname has a comprehensive meaning, as it can be translated “the whole world” and seems to be invented by a person who enjoyed travelling the world so much that it took it as his last name. It is widespread in Sicily, in the region of Agrigento and Palermo, and takes after a French surname “Toulemonde” that comes from the expression “tout le monde” (all the world/everyone).
But at a second glance, there is something more to discover: its origins may reside in the Germanic name Thurmond or Tedmond, which is a compound name: from the word “Theod” that means “people” and “mund” (protection), therefore a global meaning of it could be “the protector of the people”.
The Italians have shown the world that a name is a definitory characteristic of our existence here on earth and that nicknames have the power to transform it into a last name for an entire family and last generations.
