SURNAMES IN ITALY

Surname Nesti

Origin and meaning

The authors agree that this surname derives from Nèsto, an apocopated hypocoristic of the personal names Ernesto and Onesto, from which it became a surname. Its presence is concentrated in Tuscany, with scarce records in Emilia-Romagna.

💡 The surname Nesti also appears as altered form of the surname Ernesto in other studies consulted in this project.

Geographic distribution: Tuscany; Emilia-Romagna (rare)

📍 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.
  • De Laurentiis, F. (2003). Cognomi occhiobellesi. Storia, curiosità, significati e classifiche. Occhiobello: Teatro Polivalente di Occhiobello (T.P.O.). Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20030516113456/http://www.comune.occhiobello.ro.it/cognomi/