SURNAMES IN ITALY

Surname Durante

Origin and meaning

It has as its base the Christian augural name Durante, documented from the 10th century in the Latin forms Durantus and Durante. It continues the present participle of the Latin verb durare ("to be firm, to persevere"), meaning "firm, persevering in the faith". The authors agree that Dante is a contraction of Durante —an opinion unanimous among the specialists in Dante. Durando constitutes a variant formed under the influence of the French and Provençal name Durand. The surnames Duranti derive from this name; the Piedmontese forms Durando and Dorando probably also come from the French Durand.

💡 The surname Durante also appears as variant of the surname Durando in other studies consulted in this project.

Variants

Altered forms and derivatives

Geographic distribution: Spread throughout Italy; Piedmont for Durando and Dorando

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

Drawing on 3 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:

  • Bongioanni, A. (1940). Nomi e Cognomi. Saggio di ricerche etimologiche e storiche. Milano: Fratelli Bocca.
  • 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