Italian surnames derived from a place name preceded by the preposition da, de or di

As we already mentioned, the surnames derived from place names are the most frequent in Italy. Sometimes the toponymic ones are preceded by the prepositions da, de or di or in the contracted form del, della, dello, which indicate more explicitly a relation of provenance, origin or any type of relation between the bearer of the name and the place name. The preposition may be joined to the name or separate. In this case too the variety is very wide. Examples: Da Milano, Damilano, De Napoli, Di Napoli, Denapoli, Di Bari, Dibari, De Lucca, Dipadova. Most of these surnames are more frequent in regions far from the territory of the place name.

The prepositions in the Italian toponymics according to the region

According to Caffarelli there exists a kind of "territorial specialisation" according to the morphological characteristics of the surnames:

• the formula Da + place name is the least frequent and appears, above all, in the north of Italy. Examples: Da Como, Da Milano, Da Parma, Da Venezia
• the contraction Dal is typical of the Trentino zone and of the north of the Veneto, while Del is typical of the Venetan-Friulian area.
• the formula De + place name is above all southern but not very frequent. Examples: De Bari, De Capua, De Ceglie, De Corato, De Napoli, De Naro, De Ruvo, De Sarno, De Taranto, De Troia and, among those that refer to place names of the centre-north of the peninsula: De Padova, De Padova, De Roma, De Sena, De Siena, De Venezia.
• the formula Di + place name is the most frequent and is typical of the south of Italy. A third of these surnames refer to place names of Puglia, for example: Di Bari, Di Bisceglie, Di Bitetto, Di Bitonto, Di Brindisi, Di Canosa, Di Ceglie, Di Corato, Di Foggia, Di Gravina, Di Lecce, Di Maglie, Di Modugna, Di Mola, Di Molfetta, Di Monopoli, Di Rutigliano, Di Ruvo, Di Seci), Di Taranto, Di Terlizzi, Di Trani, Di Troia, Di Vieste. The rest refer to Sicilian place names, for example: Di Gaccamo, Di Leonforte, Di Modica, Di Naro, Di Naso, Di Noto, Di Palermo, Di Patti, Di Rosolini, Di Sclafani, Di Trapani, etc., of Campania, for example: Di Capua, Di Flummeri, Di Napoli, Di Nocera, Di Nola, Di Palma, Di Sessa, Di Somma, Di Vietri, etc. Others refer to place names of Basilicata: Di Marsico, Di Tolve, Di Venosa, Diviggiano, etc., of Abruzzo: Di Campli, Di Pentima, Di Scanno, Di Schiavi, Di Vasto, etc.; and to a lesser extent, Calabrian ones and those of southern Lazio: Di Carpegna, Di Nepi, Di Norcia, Di Padova, Di Pisa, Di Roma, etc.
• in the compound forms Del / Della + place name, generic toponymic indicators predominate, for example: Della Valle, Della Torre, Della Rocca, Della Porta, Del Monte.
• the form Del + place name is special, since the place name acquires an ethnic connotation, in surnames such as Del Pistoia, Del Pisa, Dellucca, Del Perugia, Del Siena (and also Del Puglia, Del Francia), no reference is made to a city or region but to the ancestor of the one who bears the surname, whom they called "the Pistoia", "the Pisa", "the Lucca", etc. A feminine example is Della Venezia.
• In some cases the preposition has joined totally or partially with the name of the place giving rise to surnames such as Daidone, Deidone (from the place name Aidone), Daquino (Aquino), Dascoli (Ascoli), Daggiano (Aggiano), Dalcantara (Alcantara), D'Avigo (Vigo), Danzi (Anzi), Datena (Athens).
• As for the formula D' + place name, its distribution is more varied, and there are cases in which the place name belongs to the centre or north of Italy but the surname is found in the south. From Puglia result D'Acquarica, D'Ostuni; from Sicily: D'Alcamo, D'Alcantara, D'Alessandria (from Alessandria della Rocca in the province of Agrigento), D'Aragona, D'Avola; from Calabria: D'Acri, from Campania: D'Aversa; from Abruzzo: D'Orsogna, D'Ortona; or from Lazio: D'Alatri, D'Aquino; and in other regions of central Italy: D'Ancona, D'Arezzo, D'Assisi and of the north: D'Azeglio, D'Azzano, Dazzan, Dudine (from Udine).

Italian toponymics that begin with de or di most frequent in Argentina

According to a survey of the National Registry of Persons (Renaper) in 2018, in Argentina we find numerous Italian surnames whose origin is a place name preceded by a preposition. The following is a list of the surnames derived from well-known place names:

But we also find in Argentina other toponymics preceded by the preposition Di, which are identified with names of places not so well known.

• Di Lemme (Lemme is a torrential river in Piedmont)
• Di Motta (there are very many Italian place names that include the word Motta)
• Di Rausa (Rausa is Ragusa in Sicilian dialect)
• Di Tieri (from Thiéry, a French commune of barely 100 inhabitants situated in the Maritime Alps)