SURNAMES IN ITALY

Subrero

This form is a variant of the surname Sobrero.

Origin and meaning

E. De Felice holds that this surname most likely arose from a nickname or an ethnic name derived from a dialectal form related to sobra, meaning "above, on top", with the Piedmontese —and partly Ligurian— suffix -ero, equivalent to the suffixes -ario, -aio or -iere. Its presence is concentrated in Piedmont and Liguria.

E. Rossoni specifies that the surname is typical of south-western Piedmont and the Genoa area. Among its bearers he singles out Ascanio Sobrero, a renowned scientist and one of the most distinguished chemists of the first half of the 19th century.

Variants

Geographic distribution: Piedmont and Liguria (high frequency)

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