Skip to content
Il Mio Cognome Archive of Italian Families

Archive of Italian Families

Where does
your surname come from?

Every Italian surname was born from something: a trade, a town, a nickname shouted in a village square a thousand years ago. Search for yours: find where it comes from, what it means and where the families who carry it live today. For 162 surnames there's also a PDF with the whole story, for €8.90.

Among the most common: Rossi Russo Ferrari Esposito Bianchi Romano

Your surname isn't here yet? Ask us for it: new PDFs come from your requests.

A tree whose roots trace the shape of Italy

20,000+people follow us

2,848surnames covered

162dedicated booklets

Surname stories

One surname, its whole story

The most requested surnames have their own booklet: the origins, the towns, where they spread, the map and a family tree to fill in. PDFs of 12 to 19 pages, €8.90, instant download.

A page from the PDF on the Esposito surnameA page from the PDF on the Esposito surname
Two pages from the booklet on Esposito. Every booklet has its own story, a map of the families, notable people and a family tree to fill in.
Cover of the PDF on the Rossi surname Rossi Italy’s most common surname PDF · €8.90 Cover of the PDF on the Russo surname Russo the red of the South PDF · €8.90 Cover of the PDF on the Ferrari surname Ferrari the blacksmith’s children PDF · €8.90 Cover of the PDF on the Esposito surname Esposito the children of the Madonna PDF · €8.90 Cover of the PDF on the Bianchi surname Bianchi the children of the one called the white PDF · €8.90 Cover of the PDF on the Romano surname Romano the one who came from Rome PDF · €8.90 Cover of the PDF on the Colombo surname Colombo the surname of the dove PDF · €8.90 Cover of the PDF on the Bruno surname Bruno the one with dark hair PDF · €8.90

Find your surname among the 162

The volumes

Italy's surnames, area by area and region by region

Three PDF volumes by area of Italy and nine by region. Each one holds three hundred surnames: the most common ones and rare ones our readers asked for. €19.90 per volume.

By region: Sicily · Calabria · Campania · Apulia · Lombardy · Veneto · Sardinia · Lazio · Piedmont

Choose your volume

Can't find your surname?

Tell us: every new booklet comes from the surnames you ask for most often.

Request your surname

The project

An archive of Italian surnames, built one surname at a time

Il Mio Cognome grew out of the questions left under our videos: “and mine, where does it come from?”. To answer, we bring together surname studies, old records, the history of Italian towns and the numbers on where families live today.

  • What's certain and what's likely, kept apart. When an origin is certain we say so; when scholars disagree, we give you the theories.
  • No made-up coats of arms. A coat of arms belonged to one specific family: we only tell you about one when it really existed.
  • Checked before it's published. Every PDF is checked line by line before it joins the catalog.

Want to trace your ancestors?

Portale Antenati, FamilySearch, Ancestry and the Italian State Archives: where to find your family's records, and when to use each one.

Where to look

Before you buy

Frequently asked questions

What do I get when I buy a PDF?

The PDF in two versions, English and Italian, ready to download right after you pay. The download link is also sent to you by email, so you can open it again whenever you like.

Is the PDF available in English?

Yes. Every PDF comes with an English version that has the same content, and one purchase gets you both. That also makes it easy to share with relatives in Italy or anywhere else.

Can I print it?

Yes. The PDFs are laid out in A4 format, and some pages, like the family tree, are designed to be printed and filled in by hand.

Will the PDF tell me who my ancestors were?

No. A surname tells you where a word comes from and where it spread, while your own family's story is in birth certificates and parish registers. Every PDF includes a guide to help you start looking for it.

All questions