SURNAMES IN ITALY

Surname Meda

Origin and meaning

E. De Felice notes that this surname was formed from the place name Meda, a locality in the province of Milan. E. Rossoni agrees on that origin and adds that the surname shows areas of concentration in the province of Milan, another in the province of Padua, and probably a third in the province of Asti.

The place name Meda is held to derive from the Latin term meta, which originally designated a pile or heap, and which the inhabitants applied to a village situated on a hill. The word survives in the local dialect with the sense of a woodpile (una meda de legn). The name appears also in other localities of Lombardy and in the Locarno area.

Altered forms and derivatives

Geographic distribution: Milan

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

Comparative analysis based on 3 authors: where they agree, the hypothesis is strengthened; where they differ, the alternative interpretations are presented.

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
  • Research conducted by Surnames in Italy, the English-language project of Ancestros Italianos, based on the bibliography cited in the references.