SURNAMES IN ITALY

Surname Duca

Origin and meaning

Surnames in Italy documents this surname in the municipal territory of Santa Maria la Longa, in Friuli, between 1363 and 1641, with the first documentation in the form "Dominicus dictus Ducha". Probably, in the beginning the word "Duca" was a personal nickname and later, little by little, it became a surname.

In Gorizia and Trieste, however, the surname DUCA comes from the Italianisation, carried out in the Fascist period, of the surnames Kness, Knez, Kores and Herzog.

Variants

Altered forms and derivatives

Geographic distribution: Distributed throughout Italy, with several specific zones: one in Sicily, another in the Marche and others

📍 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:

  • Rossoni, E. (2002). Origine e storia dei cognomi italiani. Retrieved from https://www.cognomiitaliani.org
  • Research conducted by Surnames in Italy, the English-language project of Ancestros Italianos, based on the bibliography cited in the references.