Where the Bono surname comes from
Bono comes from the Latin bonus, “good.” In the Middle Ages it was a personal name, given to a baby as a wish: may he grow up good, may he bring good things to the home. The Latins used it, and the Lombards borrowed it too. Then the father’s name passed to his children and became the family’s name.
That’s why the surname has no single founding ancestor. It was born more than once, in places far apart.
A name from eight hundred years ago
The name was already alive in the 12th century, when it was not yet a surname. It belonged to a wandering actor who at some point changed his life and ended up living in caves. Two centuries later, in Venice, a Bono father and son worked on one of the most famous entrances in the city. Their stories are in the PDF.
Where the Bonos live today
Bono is a surname with three homes, very far apart: Sicily, Piedmont and Lombardy. There are about 5,000 families in Italy. The town where it is the top surname is in Sicily: Sciacca, in the province of Agrigento. Many Bonos live overseas today. The region-by-region map and the countries around the world they reached are in the PDF.
Variants
The same Latin word gave Italy many surnames, from the North to Campania. The PDF explains where each one comes from.
| Surname | Where it is concentrated |
|---|---|
| Bono | Sicily, Piedmont, Lombardy |
| Bonetti | Lombardy, Emilia |
| Boni | Emilia, Lombardy, Tuscany |
| Buono | Campania |
| Bonino | Piedmont |
FAQ
What does the surname Bono mean?
It comes from the Latin bonus, “good.” In the Middle Ages it was a personal name given to a baby as a wish, which later became a family name.
Is Bono a Sicilian or a Piedmontese surname?
Both, and Lombard too. Scholars recognize one branch in western Sicily, one in Piedmont between Cuneo and Turin, and one in Lombardy. Sicily has the town where it is the top surname: Sciacca.
Are Bono and Buono the same surname?
They share the same origin. Buono is the same word in full Italian, and it is at home in Campania. Boni, Bonetti and Bonino also come from the same name.
Are all Bonos related?
No. Bono was an auspicious name carried by many families with no ties to one another. To trace your own story you need birth records and parish registers.
Is the Bono surname noble?
The surname itself is not a sign of nobility. It comes from a common personal name, and it was carried by families of every walk of life. Some Bono families had a coat of arms, but it belonged only to that branch.
Is there a Bono family coat of arms?
Heraldic archives record different coats of arms of Bono families, in Milan and Ventimiglia for example, and they look nothing alike. There is no coat of arms that belongs to all Bonos.
Is U2’s singer Bono really named Bono?
No. His name is Paul Hewson and he’s Irish. Bono is a nickname his friends gave him as a boy, taken from the sign of a shop in Dublin.
