Where the Aiello surname comes from
Aiello comes from the Latin agellum, “little field”: the small plot a family could work on its own. Ajello, with a j, is the same word written the old way.
Surname scholars point to two paths: someone who owned a small farm of his own, or someone who came from one of the villages called Aiello. Often both are true. The PDF explains how the Latin word became the surname, and which towns bear this name.
A name from eight hundred years ago
The name Aiello already appears in the 12th century, at the court of the Norman kings of Sicily. There a man of papers and registers, who started out as a notary, rose to the highest rank an official of the Kingdom could reach. The PDF tells his story, and that of a whole family that left its mark between Salerno, Palermo and Catania.
Where the Aiellos live today
Aiello is a Southern surname. There are about 7,000 families in Italy, concentrated in Sicily, Campania and Calabria. The town where it is number one is in Sicily: Bagheria, just outside Palermo. The families in the North and in Lazio came with the emigration of the 1900s, and almost as many Aiellos live outside Italy as in it. The region-by-region map and the countries around the world they reached are in the PDF.
Variants
The surname has several forms, born from old spellings, prepositions and the plurals of the Center and North. The PDF explains where each one comes from.
| Surname | Where it is concentrated |
|---|---|
| Aiello | Sicily, Campania, Calabria |
| Ajello | Sicily, then Lazio, Lombardy, Campania |
| D’Aiello | mostly Campania, then Sicily |
| Aielli | Abruzzo, Lazio |
| Ajelli | Lombardy |
| Agello | Lombardy, Umbria |
FAQ
What does the surname Aiello mean?
It comes from the Latin agellum, “little field.” It pointed to someone who owned a small farm, or to someone who came from one of the villages called Aiello.
Is Aiello a Calabrian or a Sicilian surname?
Both, and Campanian too. Sicily has the town where it is number one, Bagheria; in Calabria and Campania it is among the most common surnames, and in Campania the variant D’Aiello is especially strong.
Are Aiello and Ajello the same surname?
Yes. Ajello is the old spelling, with a j instead of an i between two vowels. Until the 1800s the surname was written by whoever kept the register, and one family can have an Ajello great-grandfather and an Aiello grandchild.
Are all Aiellos related?
No. The surname was born in many different places, among different families that were not related. To trace your own story you need birth records and parish registers.
Is the Aiello surname noble?
The surname itself is not a sign of nobility. It comes from an everyday word, the little field, and it was carried mostly by small landowners and by people from towns with that name.
Is there an Aiello family coat of arms?
Some Aiello families had a coat of arms, but it belonged to that one branch. The archives record at least two, and they look nothing alike. There is no coat of arms that belongs to all Aiellos.
