Where the La Posta surname comes from
La Posta is the name of a place, and that place is the post station. It is not the mail of letters: it is the stop along the main roads where horses were changed. Travelers found an inn there. The word comes from the Latin posita, “placed”: a fixed spot, a stopping place. The surname pointed to the family who lived at la Posta, or in a district named after it. The PDF tells why surnames with an article almost always arise this way.
A surname that stays close to home
La Posta is a place-name surname: born from a place and staying almost entirely close to it. The archives of a town in southern Lazio have kept its traces for more than two centuries. The PDF tells which town, and what its registers hold.
Where the La Postas live today
La Posta is an uncommon surname with a clear home base: just under 600 people carry it in Italy. Its heartland is in southern Lazio, in Sora, in the province of Frosinone. There lives almost one in two of all the La Postas in Italy. Outside Lazio the surname moves little: a small group in Molise, a few families in Campania and recent clusters in the North. The PDF has the region-by-region map and the countries around the world.
Variants
The PDF records no widespread variants of the La Posta surname.
FAQ
What does the surname La Posta mean?
It comes from the name of a place called la Posta, the old post station where horses were changed. It has nothing to do with today’s mail.
Is La Posta a surname from Lazio?
Yes. Its heartland is southern Lazio, around Sora and the Liri valley, in the province of Frosinone. A smaller group is found in nearby Molise, and a few families in Campania.
How many La Postas are there?
Just under 600 people in Italy and just over 800 in the world. These are estimates, and the great majority still live in Italy.
Are all La Postas related?
Not necessarily. Across Italy there are dozens of places called la Posta, and each could give rise to a family bearing the name. To trace your own family’s story you need birth records and parish registers.
Is La Posta a noble surname?
No. There is no record of an old noble house of La Posta: it was always a surname of ordinary people, born from the name of a place.
Is there a La Posta family coat of arms?
No. There is no record that the La Postas ever had a coat of arms, and one valid for a whole surname does not exist. Anyone selling one online is offering a modern invention.
Where do I start looking for my La Posta ancestors?
In Sora, which for the La Postas is almost always the starting town. Sora belonged to the Kingdom of Naples, where civil records begin in 1809; before that you search the parish registers.
