Surnames in Pacentro

Numerous surnames can be found in my database, yet some of the more obscure names have few entries. As an example, if a man from a neighboring village married a woman from Pacentro, then his surname would continue through subsequent generations only if male offspring were born and raised in Pacentro.

Pacentrani frequently referred to each other by their nickname (soprannome) rather than their family surname. At times, official documents were recorded with a villager’s surname plus his nickname or simply his nickname. The following are examples of some common soprannomi (surnames are in italics) uncovered on civil and ecclesiastic documents: Bartocchia Cercone, Marinaccia Cercone, Mastredatte Cercone, Maraccia Agostinelli, Casale Lucci, Amechizze Silvestri, Cacchiarelle Silvestri, Pescine Silvestri, and Pezzotte Silvestri. Each of these nicknames differentiated individual family members within a clan.

It should be noted that all documents contain the maiden names of all female villagers, as they did not take the surname of their spouse. All progeny bore the surname of the father, unless a child was born out-of-wedlock and the father’s identity was not revealed, then the child was given the surname of the mother. If a child was abandoned, then a contrived surname was recorded on the birth document and the word ‘ignoti’ (unknown) was listed for the parents’ names. In this latter instance, tracing a lineage is usually impossible.

The following is a list of available surnames:

Abate. Agostinelli, Altieri, Amicangelo, Amicangioli, Amichetti, Amicucci, Amicuccio, Ammazalorso, Angelilli, Antonucci, Auterio, Avolio, Baldassarre, Battaglini, Borsilli, Bosio, Buccilli, Buccitelli, Caparso, Carabbia, Caraccia, Caramanico, Carascon, Carrabbia, Carrabia, Caruso, Casasanta, Casasanta di Pirro, Casasanta Pelino, Casasanta Spaventa, Casasanta Sebastiani, Cavicchia, Celeste, Centofanti, Cerceo, Cercone, Ciamacco, Ciammarinelli, Cianferra, Cianferrilli, Cianferrilli Casasanta, Ciccarelli, Ciccone, Cicerone, Civile, Cocco, Colalillo Di Nardo, Colamatteo, Colangelo, Colantonio, Colarossi, Colasatti, Corsetti, Constantini, D’Alesio, D’Alessandro, D’Amore, D’Antino, D’Arenzo, del Russo, De Chellis, De Leonardis, De Martinis, De Nellis, De Sanctis, di Bacco, Di Capite Mancini, Di Cicco, Di Coja, Di Cristofaro, di Fiore, Di Giambattista, di Giovanni, Di Iulio, di Lisio, Di Lorenzo, Di Marzio, Di Meo, Di Nello, Di Pilla, Di Pirro, Di Salle, D’Ortenzio, Fabrillo, Faccia, Faenza, Faenzilli, Falco, Favarello, Ficorello, Floritelli, Fronsaglia, Galterio, Garofalo, Gasbarre, Gentile, Giacchesio, Giannone, Granata, Grazianelli, Graziani, Gugliemo, Iacobucci, Iannamore, Iezzi, Iuliani. La Lama, Lantini, LaRocca, Lattanzio, Lepore, Lombardi, Lozzi, Lucci, Lucci Avolio, Lucci Peperato, Lucente, Maccione, Mancini, Marchionda, Margiotta, Mariani, Marsolo, Massa, Mastramico, Mastrangelo, Mattei, Melchiorre, Mosca, Nallecchia, Nanni, Nardelli, Notarsante, Pacella, Pacentrilli, Paolillo Lucci, Passante, Pelino, Pelino Casasanta, Peluso, Peperato, Petrilli, Piccirilli, Pietrolucci, Pietropaolo, Pitassi, Polcini, Polidoro, Pompeo, Pone, Pretore, Puglielli, Ramunno, Ranalli, Rapone, Ricci, Rinaldi Toti, Roncone, Rossi, Rubino, Sant’Eufemia, Santilli, Sebastiani, Serafini, Silla, Silvestri, Simone, Spada, Spaventa, Spaventa Casasanta, Stinelli, Tollis, Vitucci, Zavatti