SURNAMES IN ITALY

Surname Santamaria

Origin and meaning

E. Rossoni notes that the surname seems to be proper to southern Italy, although with a presence also in the Genoa area. He derives it from very frequent place names containing the phrase Santa Maria, such as Santa Maria a Vico in the Caserta area, Santa Maria La Bruna in that of Naples, Santa Maria al Bagno in that of Lecce, Santa Maria degli Ammalati in that of Catania and Santa Maria del Credo in that of Cosenza.

F. De Laurentiis agrees on the toponymic origin and on places of worship linked to the Marian dedication, but adds a different path of formation: the surname could also have arisen from nicknames. He notes that in the Polesine —a historical district of the south of Veneto— one called Santamaria the person who used that exclamation frequently and willingly, which would have given rise to its transformation into a surname.

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

Geographic distribution: Southern Italy, the Genoa area (Liguria)

📍 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:

  • Rossoni, E. (2002). Origine e storia dei cognomi italiani. Retrieved from https://www.cognomiitaliani.org
  • 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/