D'Aloia
This form is a variant of the surname Aloe.
Origin and meaning
E. Rossoni and V. Blunda differ on the origin of the surname.
Rossoni derives it from the Campanian-Calabrian dialectal form of the medieval name Aloisius, which gave rise to the forms Eligio and Luigi.
Blunda, on the other hand, for the Sicilian variant derives it from the Greek etymon Alògon ("horse"), linked to the zoological lexicon of the Hellenic world. He notes that the term álogon in Greek literally meant "without reason" and was applied to the horse for the quality of being an irrational but noble animal. It passed into medieval Greek as a common synonym of híppos, and the surname may have arisen as a designation of an ancestor linked to the breeding or care of horses in the Sicilian rural sphere.
Variants
Geographic distribution: Area of Cosenza (Aloe); Calabria and Sicily (Aloi); all of southern Italy (Aloia); area of Campania, Puglia and Calabria (Aloja); provinces of Naples, Benevento, Foggia, Bari and Potenza (D'Aloia, D'Aloja)
📍 You can view how this surname is distributed in Italy: View distribution in Italy (Cognomix)
Sources
This entry of the Italian Surname Meanings dictionary is based on the following specialized onomastic sources:
- Rossoni, E. (2002). Origine e storia dei cognomi italiani. Retrieved from https://www.cognomiitaliani.org
- Blunda, V. (2018). Supposte origini dei cognomi in Sicilia [Digital edition]. Retrieved from https://www.trapaninostra.it