Where the Di Perna surname comes from
Di Perna means “child of Perna.” Perna was an ancient feminine name of Latin origin, related to Perla. The Di- in front marked the descendants of a woman who bore that name: it was a mother who gave the family its name. Alongside this explanation, scholars point to a second, more learned one, and that’s why the origin remains partly debated.
A woman’s name from nine hundred years ago
The name Perna already appears in a deed written in Naples in 1108. In the Middle Ages it was still given to baby girls, and many surnames of the South hide a mother. The PDF tells why this happened, and which explanation leads all the way back to ancient Rome.
Where the Di Pernas live today
Di Perna is a surname of southern Italy. About 2,500 people carry it in Italy, almost 500 families. Its heartland is the Gargano: in Carpino, in the province of Foggia, it is the fifth most common surname in town. Strong groups also live in Campania and southern Lazio, and there is an old presence in eastern Sicily. The families in the North arrived with the internal migrations of the 1900s. The PDF has the region-by-region map and the countries around the world the Di Pernas reached.
Variants
The PDF records no common variants in Italy. Abroad, especially in the United States, many write the surname as one word: DiPerna.
FAQ
What does the surname Di Perna mean?
“Child of Perna.” Perna was an ancient feminine name of Latin origin, related to Perla, and the Di- marked the descendants of a woman with that name. Scholars also point to a second, more learned explanation, which the PDF tells.
Is Di Perna a surname from Apulia?
Largely, yes: its heartland is on the Gargano, in Carpino (Foggia), where it is the fifth most common surname in town. But the surname is rooted all across southern Italy, with strong groups in Campania and southern Lazio and an old presence in eastern Sicily.
Why does the Di Perna surname come from a woman?
It is a matronymic form. When a woman was the anchor of the household, her children took her name. Many southern surnames came about this way.
Are Di Perna and DiPerna the same surname?
Yes. DiPerna, written as one word, is the spelling found mostly in the United States: in foreign record offices the space between the two parts often disappeared. If you are looking for relatives who emigrated, try both forms.
Are all Di Pernas related?
No. The surname comes from a very old personal name, and its branches may have arisen in different places in the South. To trace your own family’s story you need birth records and parish registers.
Is the Di Perna surname noble?
The surname comes from a personal name, not from a title. Old heraldry collections list individual Perna or Di Perna families from a certain place, but they concern only those households.
Is there a Di Perna family coat of arms?
No single coat of arms belongs to every Di Perna. The arms you sometimes come across belong to a single family from a certain town, not to the surname in general.
How many Di Pernas are there in Italy?
About 2,500 people, almost 500 families, with the heartland on the Gargano and in southern Italy. Others live abroad, where emigration took them in the 1800s and 1900s.
