Where the Giordano surname comes from
Giordano comes from the river of the Holy Land where, according to the Gospels, John the Baptist baptized Jesus: the Jordan, Giordano in Italian. In the Middle Ages the river’s name became a baptismal name. The son of a Giordano was “Giordano’s,” and the name turned into a surname. That’s why it was born in so many towns, each time from a different Giordano.
A name carried by pilgrims
In the Middle Ages the name traveled with pilgrims and with the Crusades, and it turns up in documents all over Italy. One of the deeds cited in the PDF comes from a town where nobody would look for it. The PDF also features a 17th-century Neapolitan painter, famous for a gift that earned him a nickname.
Where the Giordanos live today
There are about 20,000 Giordano families in Italy, and the surname has two hearts. The first is Campania, the second Piedmont, led by the Cuneo area. Then comes Sicily. The town where it is the top surname is Tramonti, above the Amalfi Coast. The region-by-region map and the countries around the world where the Giordanos settled are in the PDF.
Variants
The name took different forms in different parts of Italy, from central and northern Italy to Piedmont and all the way to Veneto. The PDF explains which ones.
| Surname | Where it is concentrated |
|---|---|
| Giordano | Campania, Piedmont, Sicily |
| Giordani | Emilia-Romagna, Lazio, Lombardy |
| Giordana | Piedmont |
FAQ
What does the Giordano surname mean?
It comes from the baptismal name Giordano, taken from the river of the Holy Land where Jesus was baptized, the Jordan. The river’s name goes back to the Hebrew Yarden.
Is Giordano a Neapolitan or a Piedmontese surname?
Both. Campania is the region where it is most common, Piedmont comes right after, and in the province of Cuneo it is the second most common surname. It is also strong in Sicily.
Are Giordano and Giordani the same surname?
They have the same origin. Giordani is the form ending in -i typical of central and northern Italy, Giordana the Piedmontese form. Until the 1800s the same family could appear in the records in different forms.
Is the Giordano surname of Jewish origin?
The river’s name comes from Hebrew, but the surname comes from a Christian baptismal name. Whoever gave it to a son was, in a sense, entrusting him to the water of Christ’s baptism.
Are all Giordanos related?
No. Many towns had a man called Giordano who passed the name to his children, and two Giordano families can have very different histories. To rebuild your own you need birth records and parish registers.
Is the Giordano surname noble?
The surname itself doesn’t mean nobility. The archives record a few noble families, like the Giordanos of Cosenza and the Giordano dukes between Naples and Trani. Nearly all Giordano families, though, never had a coat of arms.
Is there a Giordano family coat of arms?
There is no single coat of arms for all Giordanos. Each coat of arms belonged to one specific branch, in a specific place and time, and doesn’t apply to the others.
