Why so many Italian surnames end with –i?
The matter of the surnames ending with –i has been quite debated among linguists, given its theoretic interest, as it helps demonstrate that a family group could have been named by a plural word.
In the beginnings, most times surnames were an official and artificial tag that the carrier only used when it was mandatory (for example, notarial acts), especially on the countryside; the rest of the time people used completely different names. Eventually, those official tags remained and ended up prevailing on written documents.
During the Middle Ages, notary publics wrote the documents in latin rather than the language spoken by the majority of the population; therefore, their notations of individual names and surnames had to be a “meeting point” between the vulgar form and a Latin or Latinized form.
A number of Italian surnames end with i because they derive greatly from those Latin notarial formulas, in which patronymics were registered. For example:
- in a notarial certificate Pietro, son of Martino, was written as Petrus filius Martini and over time “filius” disappeared.
The ending in i was incorporated into other types of surnames, such as those derived from place names:
- In Lombardy, the surname Inzaghi was formed from Inzago; from Galbiate: Galbiati; from Turate: Turati, etc.
The same thing happened with those derived from names derived from trades or nicknames:
The ending –i would refer to “family groups”
The -i of Italian surnames does represent, in principle, the ending of the Latin singular masculine genitive used by notaries for the drafting of their writings. These denominations seem to apply better to family groups, rather than to families in the restricted sense of the word. It could be said it applies to peoples, tribes, people living in the same house or perhaps, on the same street.
However, there are numerous exceptions, for example:
- Paoli is considered by some authors to be just an adaptation of Pauli from the notarial Latin.
Aebischer’s Study
This topic is the focus of a 1947 publication by Paul Aebischer, titled: “Les origines de la finale -i des noms de famille italiens”1
Paul Aebischer (1897–1977) was a Swiss philologist, linguist, and Romanist, specializing in Romance languages and onomastics (the study of proper names). He taught at the University of Fribourg and was known for his rigorous studies in toponymy and anthroponymy, especially in French and Italian.
Aebischer’s Findings
Aebischer studied thousands of medieval notarial documents from across Italy (Tuscany, Emilia, Rome, Naples, and more). He identified several patterns in the way names were recorded:
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Single given name: e.g., Petrus (Peter)
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With full patronymic: Petrus filius Pauli (Peter, son of Paul)
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With “de”: Petrus de Paulo (more common in central and southern Italy)
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Abbreviated form: Petrus Pauli (frequent in Tuscany and Emilia)
Over time, especially in northern and central Italy, this last form became a hereditary surname — giving rise to names like Pauli, Martini, Benedetti, and others.
Aebischer refutes the idea that the -i ending indicates a plural. If it did, we would expect forms like Paulorum or de Paulis (“of the Pauls”), but such forms are virtually absent.
Regional Variations
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In Tuscany and Emilia, the shortened form Petrus Pauli became the standard, leading to the prevalence of surnames ending in -i.
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In Campania and Latium, the form Petrus de Paulo remained more common, resulting in fewer surnames ending in -i.
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Earlier documents still feature the complete Petrus filius Pauli, which later simplified over time.
Conclusion
Aebischer concludes that the -i ending in Italian surnames originates in the Latin genitive, not a plural. It was the notarial Latin of the Middle Ages that formalized this usage, turning it into a fixed and eventually hereditary surname structure.
Therefore, surnames like Paoli, Benedetti, Franchi, or Martini don’t mean “the Paulos” or “the Benedettos,” but rather stem from “Peter, son of Paul”, expressed in Latin form.
Statistics
The -i ending is much more frequent in the North, while, in Central and South Italy, surnames generally have other vowel endings (o, a, u), sometimes also accented, due to different linguistic origins.
If we take 100 of the most frequent surnames in the 20 Italian regions, only 878 out of 2000 end in -i; 526 end in -o, 233 end in -a, 151 end in -e, 60 end in -n, 44 end in -r, 41 end in -s, 28 in -u and 70 end with other letters.