Where the Coco surname comes from
Coco is an occupational surname and means “the cook.” It comes from the Latin coquus, which in Sicilian and in many southern dialects became cocu.
The first Coco cooked for others: for a convent, a noble house, an inn or a lord. The trade became the way people knew him, and the nickname stayed with the family.
The cooks of the palaces
From the 1700s the noble families of Naples and Sicily wanted a special cook in their homes, one with a French name. Some became as famous as artists. The PDF tells who they were, and where they really came from.
Where the Cocos live today
Coco is Sicilian first of all, and its heart is the province of Catania, on the slopes of Mount Etna. There are about 3,500 families in Italy. The town where it is number one is Viagrande, a land of vineyards at about 400 meters above sea level. Outside the island there is a small cluster in Apulia, then the families who moved to the North. Many Cocos live overseas today, along the routes of Sicilian emigration. The region-by-region map and the countries around the world they reached are in the PDF.
Variants
The same trade gave different surnames, with the article in Sicily and closer to standard Italian in Campania. The PDF explains where each one comes from.
| Surname | Where it is concentrated |
|---|---|
| Coco | Sicily |
| Lo Coco | Sicily |
| Cuoco | Campania |
| Lococo | Lazio, Calabria, Piedmont |
FAQ
What does the Coco surname mean?
“The cook.” It comes from the Latin coquus, which became cocu in Sicilian and in many southern dialects. The first Coco was a man who cooked for a living, for a convent, a palace or an inn.
Is Coco a Sicilian surname?
Yes. In no other region is it as common as in Sicily, where it is the fifty-second most common surname on the island. Its heart is the province of Catania, around Mount Etna.
Are Coco and Lo Coco the same surname?
They have the same origin. Lo Coco is “the cook” with the article, Sicilian style, and when the article fused with the name, Lococo was born. In old registers the same family can appear with or without the article.
Does the Coco surname exist outside Italy too?
Yes. Cocos of Italian origin live mostly in the United States, Brazil and Argentina. There are also Cocos in Africa and France whose surnames arose completely independently, because the word exists in many languages.
Are all Cocos related?
No. Two Coco families can have completely different stories, with no tie between them. To trace your own story you need birth records and parish registers.
Is the Coco surname noble?
The surname itself doesn’t indicate nobility. It comes from a trade and is the surname of working families: cooks, farmers, craftsmen.
Is there a Coco family coat of arms?
There is no coat of arms for all the Cocos. If a Coco family had one, it belonged to that specific branch, not to the thousands of families who bear the surname.
