Where the Catanzaro surname comes from
The surname comes from the Calabrian city. Whoever left Catanzaro to live elsewhere became, in the new town, “il catanzaro”: the one from Catanzaro. Then the nickname passed to the children and became the family’s name.
The city’s name has a story too, starting from the medieval Greek Katantzárion. The scholars’ theories, and the legend of the two commanders, are in the PDF.
The city of silk
For centuries Catanzaro was famous all over Europe for its velvets and damasks. Its craftsmen were called to teach the art as far away as France. And a siege it held off earned the city a title granted by an emperor. The PDF tells how it went.
Where the Catanzaros live today
It looks like the most Calabrian surname there is, and yet most of the families live in Sicily. There are about 1,100 in Italy. After Sicily come Apulia and Calabria, evenly matched. The town where the surname is strongest is Motta d’Affermo, in the Nebrodi hills, in the province of Messina. It reached the North with 20th-century emigration. The region-by-region map and the countries around the world they reached are in the PDF.
Variants
From the same city also comes Catanzariti, with an ending typical of southern Calabria. The PDF explains where that ending comes from.
| Surname | Where it is concentrated |
|---|---|
| Catanzaro | Sicily, Apulia, Calabria |
| Catanzariti | Calabria, Lombardy, Piedmont |
FAQ
What does the Catanzaro surname mean?
“The one from Catanzaro.” It was the nickname of someone who left the city to live elsewhere, which then passed to the children and became a surname.
Is Catanzaro a Calabrian or a Sicilian surname?
It comes from the name of a Calabrian city, but today most Catanzaro families live in Sicily. After the island come Apulia and Calabria, evenly matched.
Are Catanzaro and Catanzariti the same surname?
They come from the same city name. Catanzariti means “resident of Catanzaro” and is a surname from southern Calabria. The families, though, were born in different places and times and aren’t necessarily related.
Are all Catanzaros related?
No. The surname was born every time someone left the city and settled elsewhere, and two Catanzaro families aren’t necessarily related. To trace your own story you need birth records and parish registers.
Is the Catanzaro surname noble?
The surname itself doesn’t indicate nobility: it comes from the name of a city. A 19th-century heraldic dictionary records two Catanzaro families with a coat of arms, but they were specific branches.
Is there a Catanzaro family coat of arms?
Two Catanzaro families, one from Messina and one from Tursi in Basilicata, had coats of arms of their own. The one with the imperial eagle, instead, is the city’s coat of arms. There is no coat of arms for all the Catanzaros.
