Where the Giunta surname comes from
Giunta was born from a wish: it comes from Bonagiunta, the “good addition,” the name given in the Middle Ages to a child who arrived to enrich the family. The name was shortened to Giunta and then passed from father to son. It was born more than once, in different places: today its heart is in Sicily, but there are old branches in the areas around Pesaro, Lucca, Milan and Turin too.
A name from eight hundred years ago
In the 1200s Giunta was still a personal name, borne by a poet whom Dante meets in Purgatory and by the painter of the great crosses of Pisa. In the 1400s, in Florence, the sons of a wool weaver named Giunta took their father’s name as a surname and became printers known across half of Europe. Their stories are in the PDF.
Where the Giuntas live today
Giunta is a Sicilian surname, with about 3,900 families in Italy: it is the second most common surname in the province of Enna, and the town where it is strongest is Assoro. The families in Lombardy and Lazio come mostly from the emigration of the 1900s, and more than one Giunta in three lives abroad. The map and the countries are in the PDF.
Variants
The same name had two destinies: Sicily kept the simple form, Tuscany multiplied it. The PDF tells which forms, and why.
| Surname | Where it is concentrated |
|---|---|
| Giunta | Sicily |
| Giuntini | Tuscany |
| Giunti | Tuscany |
| Giuntoli | Tuscany, around Pistoia |
FAQ
What does the Giunta surname mean?
It comes from Bonagiunta, the “good addition”: an auspicious medieval name for a child who arrived as a gift.
Are all Giuntas related?
No. The surname was born more than once, in different places, from families that were not related. To rebuild your own family history you need birth records and parish registers.
Does the Giunta surname have anything to do with the town council, the giunta?
It is the same word, which means addition. The surname, though, comes from the auspicious name Bonagiunta, the “good addition,” given to children in the Middle Ages.
Are Giunta and Giunti the same surname?
They have the same origin. Giunti is the plural form, typical of Tuscany; the family of Florentine printers used both.
Is there a Giunta family coat of arms?
Heraldic archives record different coats of arms for Giunta families, for example one from Sicily and one from Pisa, and they don’t look alike. There is no single coat of arms for all Giuntas.
Is Giunta a Sicilian surname?
Today it is: it is the 49th most common surname in Sicily and the second in the province of Enna. But it was born more than once, and it also has old branches in Tuscany, Marche, Lombardy and Piedmont.
Is the Giunta surname noble?
The surname itself doesn’t mean nobility. It comes from an auspicious name borne by many ordinary families; the coats of arms on record belong to specific branches, not to all Giuntas.
