SURNAMES IN ITALY

Surname Chiàves

Origin and meaning

E. De Felice notes that it is a surname very frequent in the Turin area, formed from the place name Chiàves, a locality of that same province.

E. Rossoni, on the other hand, describes it as a very rare surname and specifies that Chiaves is a locality belonging to the municipality of Monastero di Lanzo, in the Turin area. Both authors agree on the toponymic origin and on the link with that Piedmontese province, although they differ in the assessment of its frequency.

Geographic distribution: Turin area

📍 You can view how this surname is distributed in Italy: View distribution in Italy (Cognomix)

Drawing on 2 authors, this entry presents the different hypotheses about the origin of the surname, avoiding a single oversimplified explanation.

Sources

This entry of the Italian Surname Meanings dictionary is based on the following specialized onomastic sources:

  • De Felice, E. (1978). Dizionario dei cognomi italiani. Milano: Mondadori.
  • Rossoni, E. (2002). Origine e storia dei cognomi italiani. Retrieved from https://www.cognomiitaliani.org