Where the Lentini surname comes from
Lentini is the name of a Sicilian city, on the plain between Catania and Syracuse. The surname means “the one who came from Lentini.”
A surname from a place was almost always born far from that place. In town, nobody needed to be called that. But whoever left for another town became, to the new neighbors, “the one from Lentini,” and the nickname passed to the children. A noble legend tells a different origin: you will find it in the PDF, along with how much of it is true.
Two masters of words
Two great masters of words came from the city of Lentini. One dazzled Athens in the 5th century BC. The other, a notary of Emperor Frederick II, is considered the inventor of the sonnet. Their stories are in the PDF, along with the Greek origins of the city and its symbol, the lion.
Where the Lentinis live today
Lentini is a Sicilian surname. In Italy there are about 2,200 families, and on the island they are most numerous in the western part, far from the city that gave them their name. Outside Sicily the surname is well established in Lombardy and Piedmont, where many families moved north in the 1900s. You will also find it in Calabria and Apulia. The region-by-region map and the countries around the world where the Lentinis settled are in the PDF.
Variants
The surname has two related forms, one from the mainland and one very rare Sicilian form. The PDF explains where they come from.
| Surname | Where it is concentrated |
|---|---|
| Lentini | Sicily, Lombardy, Calabria |
| Lentino | Campania, Apulia, Calabria |
| Lentinello | Sicily |
FAQ
What does the surname Lentini mean?
It means “the one who came from Lentini,” the city in the province of Syracuse that the Greeks called Leontinoi. It was the nickname given to people who left the city to live elsewhere.
Is Lentini a Sicilian surname?
Yes. It comes from the name of a Sicilian city and is most common in the western part of the island. The families in Lombardy and Piedmont arrived mostly with the migrations of the 1900s.
Are Lentini and Lentino the same surname?
Yes, they come from the same city name. Lentino, in the singular, is the most common form on the mainland, in Campania, Apulia and Calabria. The same family can appear as Lentini in one record and as Lentino in another.
Are all Lentinis related?
No. The surname was born among people who left Lentini at different times and for different towns, with no ties between them. To trace your own story you need birth records and parish registers.
Is the Lentini surname noble?
The surname itself does not mean nobility. Sicily had a few noble Lentini families, such as the barons of Castelvetrano and San Basilio. But the great majority of Lentinis come from ordinary families.
Is there a Lentini family coat of arms?
Heraldic archives record the coat of arms of a few noble Lentini families of Sicily. It was the mark of those families: almost all the others had none. There is no coat of arms that belongs to every Lentini.
Why is the Lentini surname common far from the city of Lentini?
That is what happens to surnames from places. The nickname “from Lentini” was only useful outside the city, for those who had left. This is why today the Lentinis are more numerous in western Sicily.
