Where the Ferro surname comes from
Ferro comes from the Latin ferrum, “iron,” which has reached us almost unchanged. It was the nickname of a blacksmith, or of someone who worked in the iron mines and foundries. Every town needed its blacksmith, and calling him “Ferro” was the simplest way to say who he was. Over time the trade became the name of thousands of families.
A formula kept secret
In Renaissance Bologna a professor of mathematics, Scipione dal Ferro, solved a problem that mathematicians had been racking their brains over for centuries. Instead of publishing the solution he kept it to himself, and that secret changed his life. The PDF tells his story, and that of a great Sicilian actor.
Where the Ferros live today
Ferro is one of the most evenly spread surnames in Italy: you find it almost everywhere, because every town had a blacksmith. There are about 10,100 families. The regions where it is strongest are Veneto, especially the Polesine area, Piedmont and Sicily. The town where it is the top surname is Calosso, in the hills around Asti. With emigration the surname reached mostly the Americas. The region-by-region map and the countries around the world where the family settled are in the PDF.
Variants
Iron gave rise to several surnames, in the plural or with diminutives meaning “little Ferro.” The PDF explains where each one comes from.
| Surname | Where it is concentrated |
|---|---|
| Ferro | Veneto, Piedmont, Sicily |
| Ferri | Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy, Lazio |
| Ferretti | Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany, Lazio |
| Ferretto | Veneto, Liguria, Lombardy |
| Ferrotti | Veneto, Umbria, Lazio |
FAQ
What does the Ferro surname mean?
It comes from the Latin ferrum, the metal iron. It was the nickname of a blacksmith or of someone who worked in the iron mines and foundries, and it later became the family name.
Is Ferro a surname from Veneto, Piedmont or Sicily?
All three. The regions where it is strongest are Veneto, especially the Polesine area, Piedmont and Sicily. The Ferro families of these regions were each born on their own, from different blacksmiths.
Are Ferro and Ferri the same surname?
They share the same root. Ferri is the plural form, typical of central and northern Italy, and it is among the fifty most common surnames in Italy. In old records the same family can appear as Ferro, Ferri, Del Ferro or Dal Ferro.
Are Ferro, Ferrari and Ferraro related?
They all come from the same trade, the blacksmith’s: Ferrari in the North, Ferrero in Piedmont, Ferraro in the South. They are “the iron folks,” but they are different surnames and don’t point to the same family.
Are all Ferros related?
No. The surname was born in many different places, from Veneto to Sicily, because every town had a blacksmith. To rebuild your own family history you need birth records and parish registers.
Is the Ferro surname noble?
The surname itself doesn’t mean nobility: it comes from a trade. Nearly all Ferro families, descended from blacksmiths and farmers, never had a coat of arms.
Is there a Ferro family coat of arms?
A coat of arms belonged to one specific branch, in a specific place and time. If a Ferro family in Rome or Venice had one, it was theirs alone. There is no single coat of arms for all Ferros.
