Saturday, September 1, 2012

Italian Pérez

While looking for information on vandalism acts on the Portuguese internet infrastructures, Google pointed me to an interesting website on the origin, story, and roots of Italian last names. The site is cool because it gives you an idea of the geographical region in which last names were originated. For instance, if your last name is "Montagner" (just to give a random example), then most likely you were born in the Veneto region. Oddly enough, there is an entry for "Pérez" (and Peres). It reads:
Peres ha un ceppo nell'udinese che dovrebbe derivare da una versione dialettale del nome Pero derivato da Piero che è una modificazione del nome Pietro, ha ceppi nel napoletano, nel foggiano ed in Sicilia. Perez ha vari ceppi in Sicilia, nel napoletano e nel brindisino, di chiara origine spagnola dovrebbe trattarsi di un patronimico dal nome spagnolo Pero (Pietro) con l'aggiunta del suffisso -ez per figlio di, o di una sua modificazione.
What the above text suggests is that there might be Italians with last name Pérez (well, probably without the accent) all around Italy: in Udine (north), but mostly in the south: Foggia, Naples, Sicily, Brindisi. This came as a surprise to me, even if I was aware of the strong connections between Spain and what nowadays corresponds to southern Italy (see here for further information).

1 comment:

Cinzia said...

Very interesting. I do not know anybody with the surname Perez nor Peres, but the variation in Peressutti is indeed a common surname in Friuli. There is also a small village called Pers (http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pers_%28Majano%29).