SURNAMES IN ITALY

Surname Sanfilippo

Origin and meaning

E. De Felice, E. Rossoni and G. P. Holmes agree that the surname was formed from place names of the San Filippo type, frequent in Sicily and its surroundings.

De Felice specifies that the place name is common in the Reggio Calabria and Messina areas, with localities such as San Filippo del Mela and San Filippo Superiore and Inferiore, in the province of Messina.

Rossoni notes that the surname is very diffused in Sicily, with an important nucleus also in Rome and migrations towards Turin, Milan, Genoa, Bologna and Florence. He cites as possible place names of origin Aci San Filippo, San Filippo del Mela or San Filippo di Modica, among others similar.

Rossoni recalls that the devotion to Saint Philip in Sicily is very ancient: the one who would be known as Saint Philip of Agira would have been sent to Sicily by the apostle Peter around the year 65–70 of the Christian era to spread Christianity.

Holmes derives it specifically from the name of the Enna municipality of San Filippo d'Agira.

Geographic distribution: Sicily (high frequency) and southern Calabria

📍 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:

  • 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
  • Patti Holmes, G. (2018). Alla scoperta dei cognomi siciliani. Retrieved from https://www.ilsicilia.it