Where the De Majo surname comes from
In the Middle Ages Maggio and Maio were also personal names, taken from the month of May, maius in Latin. The De in front means “son of,” “of the family of.” So the first De Maio was the son of a man called Maio.
And the j? It’s the old way of writing the i between two vowels, which almost everyone has dropped. In Italy there are about sixty De Majo families, against more than a thousand De Maio. The PDF also tells of the other possible path for the surname, the one from a place.
The king’s music
In the 1700s a Neapolitan De Majo won the top post in his city’s music, beating famous rivals. His son was already playing at court as a boy, and his operas were staged across half of Europe. Even a young musical genius passing through Naples wrote about him to his sister. The story of father and son is in the PDF.
Where the De Majos live today
The surname is above all from Campania. The families who spell it with a j live in Campania, then in Lazio and Tuscany. The De Maio form, too, is centered in Campania, in the province of Avellino. In Solofra, the leather town, it’s the third most common surname. The region-by-region map and the countries around the world they reached are in the PDF.
Variants
The surname has many brothers: with an i or with a j, with De, with Di or with nothing in front. The PDF explains where each one comes from.
| Surname | Where it is concentrated |
|---|---|
| De Majo | Campania, Lazio, Tuscany |
| De Maio | Campania, Lazio, Lombardy |
| Di Majo | Sicily, Lazio, Campania |
| Di Maio | Campania, Sicily, Lazio |
| Maio | Campania, Sicily, Lazio |
FAQ
What does the surname De Majo mean?
“Son of Maio.” Maio was a medieval personal name, taken from the month of May, maius in Latin.
Are De Majo and De Maio the same surname?
Yes, it’s the same form. Majo with a j is the old spelling: for centuries the i between two vowels was written as j. Then almost everyone switched to the i, and today the De Majos are a small rarity.
Are De Majo and Di Maio related?
They come from the same name, and Di and De mean the same thing. The families, though, arose in different places and aren’t necessarily related. In old records it’s worth searching every form.
Is De Majo a surname from Campania?
Yes. De Majo families live mostly in Campania, then in Lazio and Tuscany. De Maio, too, is centered in Campania, in the province of Avellino.
Are all De Majos related?
No. The surname came from a personal name, in many different places, and two De Majo families aren’t necessarily related. To trace your own story you need birth records and parish registers.
Is the De Majo surname noble?
The surname itself doesn’t indicate nobility. A 19th-century heraldic dictionary mentions a de Majo family of the Neapolitan nobility, originally from Tramonti, above Amalfi. It was one specific branch, not the whole surname.
Is there a De Majo family coat of arms?
That Neapolitan family had a gold coat of arms with a green pine on three hills. It was theirs, not every De Majo’s. No single coat of arms belongs to the whole surname.
