SURNAMES IN ITALY

Surname Solarino

Origin and meaning

E. De Felice identifies this surname as derived from the place name Solarino, a locality in the province of Syracuse, in eastern Sicily.

V. Blunda proposes instead a Sicilian dialectal origin, from the word sularìnu, meaning "solitary". According to this author, the term describes both a person of retired life and a place set apart from the bustle. As a surname, it would have arisen from a nickname applied to someone of a reserved character or living in an isolated spot.

Both hypotheses are not necessarily mutually exclusive: the place name Solarino could share the same dialectal root as the adjective sularìnu, which would explain how the surname could have formed both from the name of the place and from the nickname.

Geographic distribution: Eastern Sicily

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

Comparative analysis based on 2 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.
  • Blunda, V. (2018). Supposte origini dei cognomi in Sicilia [Digital edition]. Retrieved from https://www.trapaninostra.it