Where the Barbieri surname comes from
Barbieri is a trade surname: it comes from the nickname of the barber, from the Latin barba, “beard.” The first Barbieri shaved beards and cut hair in town. “The barber’s folks” became the Barbieris. As with Ferrari and Rossi, the final -i is typical of the North and stands for the whole family.
Every town had its barber. That’s why the surname was born hundreds of times, each time from a different shop.
Much more than a haircut
For centuries the barber did a lot more, and his shop held tools we wouldn’t expect today. The surname then reached the great museums of the world, thanks to a 17th-century painter everyone knows by a nickname. Their stories are in the PDF.
Where the Barbieris live today
Barbieri is the surname of the Po Valley. There are about 17,700 families in Italy, mostly in Emilia-Romagna and Lombardy. In Emilia it is among the region’s top surnames. The city where it ranks number one is Voghera, in the province of Pavia. Farther south the surname thins out and the barber takes other forms. The region-by-region map and the countries around the world the Barbieris reached are in the PDF.
Variants
The same trade gave a different surname in almost every dialect, from Piedmont to the South. The PDF tells which ones they are, and where each comes from.
| Surname | Where it is concentrated |
|---|---|
| Barbieri | Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy, Veneto |
| Barbero | Piedmont, Liguria |
| Barbiero | Veneto, Lombardy, Piedmont |
| Barberio | Calabria, Apulia, Campania |
FAQ
What does the surname Barbieri mean?
“The barber.” It is a trade surname, born from the nickname of the man who shaved beards, cut hair and treated small ailments.
Is Barbieri a surname from Emilia?
Mostly from Emilia and Lombardy. In Emilia-Romagna it is the fifth most common surname in the region and the second in the province of Modena. In Lombardy it is the top surname in Voghera.
Are Barbieri and Barbiero the same surname?
They come from the same trade. Barbiero is the Venetian and Friulian form, Barbero the Piedmontese one, Barberio the Southern one. Until the 1800s the same family may appear in the records under different forms.
Are all Barbieris related?
No. Every town had a barber, and the surname was born hundreds of times. Two Barbieri families almost always have no ties to each other.
Is the Barbieri surname noble?
The surname itself is not a sign of nobility: it comes from a craftsman’s trade. Barbieri families were families of craftsmen, and almost none of them ever had a coat of arms.
Is there a Barbieri family coat of arms?
The archives record, for example, a Barbieri family from Parma with its own coat of arms. But it was theirs alone: there is no coat of arms that belongs to all Barbieris.
