SURNAMES IN ITALY

Gottuso

This form is a variant of the surname Guttuso.

Origin and meaning

The authors agree that this surname is of Sicilian origin and derives from a nickname formed from the Sicilian dialect word guttusu, meaning "melancholy, sad".

E. De Felice specifies that the term also covers southern Calabrian and that its meaning further includes "surly, touchy". He links it etymologically to gutta ("drop"), in the figurative sense of "grave moral pain, vexation".

E. Rossoni notes that the surname is very infrequent and locates its presence mainly in the Palermo area, with an additional core in the Catania area.

Variants

Geographic distribution: Sicily

📍 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