If you like the Italian language, you may be wondering “what are the most common Italian surnames?”. So, have a look at our list below. Today we are going to tell you about the history of Italian surnames.

How did the Italian surnames come into existence?

Italian surnames started to be used in Roman times. Before that, citizens were identified by their first names (in Latin praenomen) and their family names (in latin nomen). But when the population started to increase, some problems arose because many families had the same names. So, they decided to add surnames (in Latin cognomen) which derived from work activities, physical features, places of origin, and so on. Continue reading →