Number 5 Italian Surname Romano I guess it’s not surprise that Romano is in the top 5 most common Italian surnames.  Some show it as 5 some as 6, but we’ll probably see some discrepancies as we move down the list. ROMANO ROMANNO: Local. From lands in the county of Peebles, Scotland, so called from a Roman military way, leading from the famous Roman camp at Line to the Lothians, which passed through the middle of those lands, from which they were called Romanno.  Romano is also associated with Sephardic Jews. — Ludus Patronymicus(1868) by Richard Stephen Charnock (Italian) One who came from Rome (four crossroads), or from within Rome’s political sphere; one who has visited Rome. — Dictionary of American Family Names(1956) by Elsdon Coles Smith There is one branch of the Colonna family with Romano appended to it in the Libro d’Oro Join Italian Roots and Genealogy on Facebook Click here to purchase a copy of my story Famous Romano’s Acting Andrea Romano(born 1955), voice actress Andy Romano(born 1941), American actor Carlo Romano(1908–1975), Italian film actor, screenwriter and voice actor Christy Carlson Romano(born 1984), American actress Gerardo Romano(born 1946), Argentine actor Janet Romano, an American actress Larry Romano(born 1963), American actor Nina Romano, American actress Ray Romano(born 1957), American actor and comedian Rino Romano(born 1969), Canadian voice actor Art and writing Antoniazzo Romano(1430s–1510s), Italian Early Renaissance painter Giulio Romano(c. 1490–1546), 16th-century Italian artist Romano Romanelli(1882–1968), Italian sculptor Romano Vio(1913–1984), Italian sculptor Lou Romano(born 1972), member of the Art Department in Pixar Animation Studios Lalla Romano(1906–2001), Italian novelist, poet, and journalist Romano Bilenchi(1909–1989), Italian novelist, short story writer and essayist Rose Romano(born 1959), American poet Music Aldo Romano(born 1941), Italian-French jazz drummer Daniel Romano(born 1985), Canadian musician Frank Romano(born 1970), American born guitarist, songwriter and record producer Tony Romano (musician)(1915–2005), American guitarist and performer Politics Romano Prodi(born 1939), former prime minister of Italy Francesco Saverio Romano(born 1964), Italian politician Sports Ángel Romano(1893–1972), Uruguayan footballer Rubén Omar Romano(born 1958), Argentine-Mexican footballer Serge Romano(born 1964), French footballer Romano Denneboom(born 1981), Dutch footballer Romano Perticone(born 1986), Italian footballer who plays for Cesena Luke Romano(born 1986), New Zealand rugby union footballer Al Romano(born 1954), American football player Johnny Romano(1934–2019), American baseball player Mike Romano(born 1972), American baseball player Jason Romano(born 1979), former professional baseball player Tom Romano(born 1958), baseball player Sal Romano(born 1993), baseball player Megan Romano(born 1991), American swimmer Tony Romano (ice hockey)(born 1988), American ice hockey player Romano Bonagura(1930–2010), Italian bobsledder, 1964 Winter Olympics Yossef Romano(1940–1972), Israeli athlete murdered at Munich Olympics Romano Fenati(born 1996), Italian Grand Prix motorcycle racer Romano Racing, an Australian motor racing team, 1995–2003 Other people Antonio Romano (disambiguation), multiple people Ezzelino da Romano, a medieval Italian family Romano Bobone, an Italian cardinal, 928 by Pope Leo VI Romano Guardini(1885–1968), Italian-German Catholic priest Romano Artioli(born 1932), Italian entrepreneur Carmine Romano(1935–2011), New York mobster and captain in the Genovese crime family Benito Romano(born 1950), Puerto Rican lawyer Carla Romano(born 1969), Scottish journalist Edward A. Romano, American business executive John Romano (disambiguation), multiple people Joseph L. Romano, officer in the United States Air Force Tony Romano (disambiguation), multiple people Romano Links Romano Link from Ancestry Romano Link from Forbears Romano Link from igenea.  They have a research project for Romano. Description:The Romano Family Project is open to all who are interested in working together to find their common heritage through sharing of information and dna testing. All variant spellings are welcome. If your Surname is missing and should be included, we’ll be glad to add it. Please visit our website and add your family to the Patriarch Page. Requirements:A Surname Project traces members of a family that share a common surname. They are of the most interest in cultures where surnames are passed on from father to son like the Y-Chromosome. This project is for males taking a Y-Chromosome DNA (Y-DNA) test. Thus, the individual who tests must be a male who wants to check his direct paternal line (father’s father’s father’s…) with a Y-DNA12, Y-DNA37, Y-DNA67, or Y-DNA111 test and who has one of the surnames listed for the project. Females do not carry their father’s Y-DNA. Females who would like to check their father’s direct paternal line can have a male relative with his surname order a Y-DNA test. Females can also order an mtDNA test for themselves such as the mtDNAPlus test or the mtFullSequence test and participate in an mtDNA project. Both men and women may take our autosomal Family Finder test to discover recent relationships across all family lines. Romano Crests from Stemmario.It Italian Name Search Link

Jean Telljohann talks about her family roots from Campania and Calabria and her recent trip to Italy Jean mentions a great online  seminar offered by the NYG&B.   Check is out here.https://www.newyorkfamilyhistory.org/events/finding-la-famiglia Visit Our Shop Podcast Click here to join our group on Facebook Video

Number 4 Italian Surname Bianchi There is not a lot of information about the Bianchi surname.  Based on what I found below there are two possible origins.  There are many branches of the name or family, with many Stemmari ( Crests ) recorded by Stemmario It. Bianchi is the plural of whites. “People of light complexion” is a good guess, but not an educated one. A religious cult called the “Bianchi” because they dressed in white robes did develop in Italy about the time the family was named, but it seems these people did not take thisi as their surname because it had already been taken by members of a political group: When the Ghibelline, who supported the Holy Roman Empire (with its German Emperor), were banished from Florence in the 14th century, divisiveness continued. The Guelphs, victorious against the Ghibelline in their struggle for local autonomy, split into the Bianchi and the Neri (the whites and the blacks). The Neri then succeeded in banishing the Bianchi (including the writer Dante Aligieri). There is also a town in Calabria — Bianchi, so it is most likely that some people with this surname got there name from there. It has been written that some Bianchi ancestors had previously been known, in 3rd century Rome, by the name of Plantus.   Bianchi Stemma There are two families with the name Bianchi recorded in the Libro d’oro della Nobilita Mediterannea, so if your last name is Bianchi it is possible that you come from one of these noble families. Join Italian Roots and Genealogy on Facebook Geographical distribution equency Rank in Area Italy 133,437 1:458 5 Brazil 21,771 1:9,394 596 Argentina 16,189 1:2,640 343 United States 12,217 1:29,570 3,647 France 6,583 1:10,103 964 Switzerland 3,725 1:2,205 231 Uruguay 1,710 1:2,004 241 Canada 1,196 1:30,768 4,014 Spain 801 1:58,164 5,358 England 763 1:72,870 8,366 Russo Links Bianchi Link from Ancestry Bianchi Link from surname web search Bianchi Link from Forbears Italian Name Search Link

Number 3 Italian Surname Esposito This is one of the most interesting finds to date.  Not only is there information on Esposito, but also on how Italians would name foundlings or orphans.  There are many designations. Photo By I, Sailko,  Esposito(Italian pronunciation: [eˈspɔːzito]) is a common Italian surname. It ranks fourth among the most widespread surnames in Italy.[1]Although it is frequent throughout the country, it is especially prevalent in the Campaniaregion and, most specifically, in the Naplesarea.[2][3] Etymology and history Etymologically, this surname is thought to derive from Latinexpositus(Italian esposto, Old Italianor dialectesposito), which is the past participleof the Latin verb exponere(“to place outside”, “to expose”) and literally means “placed outside”, “exposed”.[4] Italian tradition claims that the surname was given to foundlingswho were abandoned or given up for adoption and handed over to an orphanage(an Ospizio degli espostiin Italian, literally a “home or hospice of the exposed”).[5]They were called espositibecause they would get abandoned and “exposed” in a public place. Some orphanages maintained a so-called Ruota degli esposti(English: “Wheel of the exposed”)where abandoned children could be placed. After the unification of Italy, laws were introduced forbidding the practice of giving surnames that reflected a child’s origins. Crude meaning is bastard child, or out of wedlock. As a surname, Esposito has produced a number of variants throughout modern Italy, such as D’Esposito, Degli Esposti, Esposti, Esposto, Sposito, etc. Other variants are also found in the Spanish-speaking world, for example Espósitoand Expósito. In the US in 1880, the most common occupation for Esposito’s was grocery store owner.   Join Italian Roots And Genealogy On Facebook Italian Infant Abandonment From about the thirteenth century through the end of the nineteenth century, throughout the areas that in 1860 became unified Italy, a pregnant single woman, faced with the loss of her own and her family’s honor, would leave her residence to give birth elsewhere and after having the baby baptized, would give (or have the midwife give) the newborn baby to a foundling home (ospizio) to be cared for by others. For about a year after giving birth, the unwed mother, in order to pay for her own infant’s care, often served in the ospizio as a wet nurse for the children of others though almost never for her own child. (Kertzer, pp. 131-33, 162-63.) With few exceptions, she would have no contact with her child ever again. Other new mothers anonymously abandoned their infants at the “wheel” (la ruota) located in the outside wallof the ospizio, sometimes leaving a sign of recognition (segno di riconoscimento), such as the image of a saint, a foreign coin, a torn piece of cloth, or other talisman, to preserve the mother’s ability, rarely exercised, of returning to reclaim the child, sometimes a year later or even many years later. Meanwhile, the foundling homes attempted to place the babies with lactating women in foster families, typically in the countryside, though some of the children remained in an ospizio for up to five or ten years or even longer and in some cases for their entire lives. (Kertzer, pp. 85-6, 116.) Naples was an exception; due to lack of funding to pay external wet nurses, the foundling home there attempted to care for the bulk of its abandoned babies within the foundling home itself, without placement with outside wet nurses. (Kertzer & White, 1994, p. 454.) Large percentages of the abandoned infants did not survive infancy. Those who did survive entered a new life in a new place with a new family. This system — which began in the areas that later became Italy and which spread to France, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, Ireland, Poland, and most of the Austrian provinces (Kertzer, p. 10) — was finally abandoned in Italy and elsewhere by about the beginning of the twentieth century. Some aspects of the system have re-emerged today in the “safe-haven laws” enacted recently in all 50 states and the District of Columbia within the United States (Guttmacher, p. 1) and in such other countries as Germany, Hungary, the Philippines, Slovakia, South Africa, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Czech Republic, Latvia, India, Italy, and Pakistan, all of which strictly govern but to varying degrees permit some form of abandonment of newborns, all with the aim to help stem infanticide and make abortion rare. (Mueller & Scherr, p. 2.) As conducted in Italy for about seven centuries, with varying degrees of success, the infant abandonment system was prompted by “great concern for the lives of women who found themselves in the desperate position of being pregnant and unmarried, with no one to care for their child.” (Kertzer, p. 37.) Name-Assignment Practices The Italian infant-abandonment system generally but not always included the assignment of a surname to the infant upon arrival at the ospizio. Thus while in the ospizio and later when placed with a family in the countryside, the child bore a surname different from its unknown family of origin and different from the family with which it was placed. (Kertzer, pp. 119-22.) “Until the nineteenth century, foundlings in many areas were baptized with first names only and were not given a last name.” (Kertzer, p. 119.) But generally, upon arrival at the ospizio shortly after baptism, a new surname was assigned. And once the infant or child was placed with a wet nurse in the countryside, it would be assigned a surname used locally for foundlings (such as Della Casa or Casagrande or Esposito, as shown by a few examples in the table below). For the most part the new surname was used by the child throughout the remainder of its life, though often at the time of marriage or with the births of children to that marriage, the once-abandoned child, even a male child, might assume the surname of a spouse, passing that surname on to the children of the couple.    Latin or Italian Meaning in English  Della Casagrande “Of the Ospizio” (of the Hospital or Hospice)  De Domo Magna  “Of the Ospizio” (of the Hospital or Hospice) Innocenti                                        “Innocent One” Della Scala Name assigned by foundling home in Sienna Projetti Name assigned by foundling home in Rome Esposito  “Abandoned” Degli Esposti  “Abandoned” Ospizio  Foundling Home Incogniti  “Unknown” Circoncisi  “Circumcised” Palma Surname given to child born or abandoned on Palm Sunday Thus, for example, if an abandoned child named Giuseppe were to have come from the ospizio to a local wet nurse to be taken in by a local family, the child might be raised with the “Casagrande” surname and, upon marriage to a woman maiden surnamed “Risso,” might thereafter in the records of births of their children be referred to as “Giuseppe Risso Casagrande” or “Giuseppe Risso della Casa Grande” or “Giuseppe Risso di Casa,” or the like. Sometimes the surnames assigned in the ospizi were used by the child throughout its life, with no new assignment in the residence location of the adopting family. Such names were usually unique. In the Florence ospizio, sometimes an elaborate form of the first name was used for the new surname, such as by pluralizing the first name (Amato Amati, Barbera Barberi) or by abbreviating the first name (Serafino Serafi, Anselmo Selmi). In Milan, from 1475 to 1825, every foundling was given the surname Colombo (“pigeon”), still the second most common surname in Milan and the fifth most common surname in all of Italy. Because of the stigma often formerly attached to children of illegitimate birth, and the manner in which that stigma often was perpetuated by the assignment of surnames that signaled the child’s early history of abandonment, efforts sometimes were made to assign surnames that hid that history. For example, in 1862 in Bologna, wet nurses were ordered to register the births of foundlings and provide them with both first and last names, but it was suggested that surnames be derived from words descriptive of things within one of the three kingdoms of nature (minerals, vegetables, and animals), such as Gessi (gypsum), Sassi (stones), Pietra (rock), Monti (mountains), Foblia (leaf), Rosa (rose), Garofonio (carnation), Colombi (pigeons), Leoni (lions). This practice spread through much of the northern part of Italy. Parenthetically, the suname “Casagrande,” mentioned in a few examples above, means literally “large house” and is an apt description of the massive Ospedale di Pammatone in Genoa (1766-1942), a location where ever enlarging hospital structures were established between about 1422 and 1942 when the Pammatone was destroyed during the Second World War. It is where, for one example of thousands upon thousands, in about 1761 or 1762 a man named Francesco della Casa Grande was abandoned at the ruota of the ospedale and cared for as an abandoned infant before being placed in the municipality of Lumarzo, 27 km (17 mi.) to the east by north east of Genoa, where he would live until 1849 when he died there at 87 years of age. (Sign in and see his Lumarzo death certificate at https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1971-26956-14185-2.) Numerous images of the hospital, including paintings and photographs, both before and after its destruction, can easily be found by performing an image search on the Internet. * Notethat the following surnames, identified as ones given to abandoned infants, are discussed in Ettore Rossoni’s “L’Origine dei Cognomi Italiani: Storia ed Etimologia” [“The Origin of Italian Surnames: History and Etymology”] (Melegnano, 2014; 3,379 pages; available at https://archive.org/details/OrigineEStoriaDeiCognomiItaliani), and that source should be consulted for further details: Abbandonati, Abbandonato, Abbisogni, Abbisogno, Alfeni, Allevato, Alunni, Alunno, Angiolilli, Angiolillo, Aprile•, Aprili•, Ardimenti, Ardimento, Ardimentoso, Attivissimo, Auxilia, Bellavia, Bellinvia, Boccafusca, Bompadre, Bompede, Bonafiglia, Bonasorte, Bonasorti, Boncordi, Boncordo, Boncore, Bonerba, Bonocore, Bonpadre, Bonpede, Buccafusca, Buccafuschi, Buccafusco, Buocore, Buompede, Buonafiglia, Buonasorte, Buoncuore, Buonerba, Buonocore, Buonpadre, Buonpede, Cancelli, Cancellini, Cancellino, Cancello, Canciello, D’Aprile•, Dal Pio Luogo, Dal Pio, De Munda, De Mondi, De Chiara, De Vivo, De Vivi, De Nichilo, De Mundo, Degli Innocenti, Degli Esposti, Degliesposti, Del Pio Luogo, Del Pio, Del Mondo, Del Deo, Del Signore, Del Popolo, Della Ventura, Delpopolo, Demundo, Deserti, Devivi, Devivo, Di Monda, Di Mundo, Didio, Dimonda, Dimondo, Dimundo, Espositi, Esposito, Esposti, Esposto, Febbraio•, Febbraro•, Giubilei, Giubileo, Iddiolosa, Iddiolosà, Incristi, Infante, Infanti, Infantini, Infantino, Iuorno, La Loggia, Lettera, Lo Bascio, Lobascio, Lodeserto, Loggia, Lombini, Lombino, Luggesi, Luggisi, Lunalbi, Malvestio, Malvestiti, Malvestito, Mellucci, Melluccio, Melucci, Meluccio, Mirsi, Misericordia, Monasteri, Monastero, Nichil, Nichilo, Nihil, Orfanelli, Orfanelli, Orfanini, Orfanini, Paradisi, Paradiso, Pensato, Pentecoste, Perchiacca, Portento, Posati, Posato, Poveri, Poverini, Poverino, Provvidenza, Puttin, Puttini, Radif, Ravveduto, Sacro Cuore, Sacro, Salesiani, Santececca, Settembre•, Trova, Trovatelli, Trovatello, Trovati, Trovato, Ulivini, Viavattene, Zambaglione, Zoccola, Zoccoli, Zoccolo. Esposito Links Esposito Link from Ancestry Esposito Link from Italian Genealogy Foundling Surnames Link from Italian Surname Database More Names #1 Russo #2 Ferrari

Number 1 Italian Surname Russo Russo(Italian: [ˈrusso], Sicilian: [ˈrussʊ]) is a common Siciliansurname, historically denoting nobility.[2]The root of the name originates from Medieval Latin for, Rus’,meaning, “the Norseman”—the Viking founders of the Russian Principalities—from Old Norse, “the men who row”.[3]The first recorded entry of the name Russo was discovered in the documents of Sperlinga Castle in Enna, Sicily, dated 1132.[1]Under the Norman rule of Sicily, King Roger II had granted the land title of Sperlinga Castle to one of his descendants, Riccardo, whom the King had made a baron.[citation needed]The Normans were descendants of the Viking Norseman who conquered Sicily, and Riccardo was a direct descendent of the House Hauteville(in Sicilian, d’Autavilla). As a Baron, Riccardo then presumably took the surname Russo Rosso and bestowed to the castle a coat of arms featuring a comet against a red backdrop.[1]Prior to the Norman invasion of England, there was no recognizable system for hereditary coats of arms, but it was following that conquest that the Middle Ages saw the dawn of heraldry.[citation needed]The features of the banner are significant in that they provide an explanation and give historical context to the devising of the title, Russo Rosso: red is an archetypal color symbolizing The Warrior, or in general, War, and the image of Halley’s comethas been characterized as an icon for the Viking Invaders, e.g. in the Bayeux Tapestry, denoting a portent of doomfor the opposing forces. It is perhaps owing to the original tandem identity of  “Russo Rosso” that the same heraldry is cross-referenced for both the families Rosso and Russo Camoli,[4][5]and it is likely resulting from this coupling that both Russo and Rosso carry connotations of the word, “red.” It is useful to note that while Rosso does indeed directly translate from the Italian as, “red,” the word Rus’ does not. The origins of Russo and all of its cultural variants, such as the Greek, Rhoussos (from Rhos), the French Rousseau, or the English, Russell(from Anglo-Norman) are all explicitly derived from the word Rus’, and yet, unjustifiably, the connotation of the color red remains part of the elementary explanations of their origins[6] Click here to join Italian Genealogy Blog on Facebook Shop the Italian Marketplace for your Russo Tee Shirt and other great products.  Select our design or make your own.  Printed and shipped worldwide! Geographical distribution As of 2014, 61.5% of all known bearers of the surname Russowere residents of Italy(frequency 1:277), 18.6% of the United States(1:5,429), 5.1% of Argentina(1:2,347), 4.6% of Brazil(1:12,345), 1.1% of France(1:17,406) and 1.0% of Australia(1:6,667). In Italy, the frequency of the surname was higher than national average (1:277) in the following regions: 1. Campania(1:72) 2. Sicily(1:123) 3. Calabria(1:155) 4. Apulia(1:205) 5. Basilicata(1:213) In Argentina, the frequency of the surname was higher than national average (1:2,347) in the following provinces: 1. Buenos Aires(1:1,034) 2. Buenos Aires Province(1:1,657) In the United States, the frequency of the surname was higher than national average (1:5,429) in the following states: 1. Connecticut(1:1,360) 2. Rhode Island(1:1,384) 3. New Jersey(1:1,433) 4. New York(1:1,560) 5. Massachusetts(1:1,920) 6. Florida(1:3,605) 7. Pennsylvania(1:3,637) 8. New Hampshire(1:3,888) 9. Louisiana(1:3,949) 10. Delaware(1:3,981) 11. Nevada(1:4,507) 12. Maine(1:4,594) In Brazil, the frequency of the surname was higher than national average (1:12,345) only in one state:[7] 1. São Paulo(1:4,431   Russo Links Russo Link from Ancestry Russo Link from Forbears Russo Link from igenea.  They have a research project for Russo. Hi, and welcome to the RUSSO / ROUSSO surname project! We are interested in performing y-chromosome DNA testing of people with the surname RUSSO or its common spelling variations, including ROUSSO, ROUSSEAU, RUSO, RUZO, etc., in order to look for common ancestors and common lineages. Most people with this surname had roots in Spain and Italy. Most are Catholic, but some are Sephardic Jews whose ancestors fled the Inquisition for other areas in the Mediterranean, including the Ottoman Empire. We are curious to see if we can re-link these RUSSO families into a larger and more cohesive family tree through genetic genealogy. If you are a male and your patrilineal line (that is, your father’s father’s father’s…father’s line) has the surname RUSSO or one of its spelling variants, please consider joining our project. Hopefully, you’ll find a relative here. If you are a female, please ask your brother or father to take the test. Please note: we encourage prospective members of the RUSSO surname project to test at least 25 markers, or better yet test the full 37 or 67 markers. When choosing a test to order to join this project, please choose the 25, 37, or 67 marker y-chromosome DNA test. If you have already tested 12 markers, please choose to upgrade your test results to 25, 37, or 67 markers. Share on facebook Facebook Share on google Google+ Share on twitter Twitter Share on linkedin LinkedIn