Where the Leone surname comes from
Leone comes from the personal name Leone, already Latin in the form Leo. Naming a son that way meant wishing him strength and courage. In the Middle Ages it was a much-loved name, borne by saints and popes.
Then the father’s name became the family’s name: “the children of Leone.” Sometimes, scholars say, it was a nickname instead, given to a brave man or one with a strong character.
A theory few people know
Almost all scholars agree on the personal name. For some families in the South, though, there is another possible road, one that runs through the fields and through the ears of whoever kept the registers. And there is a very famous film director who signed his first western with a made-up name, out of love for his father. Both stories are in the PDF.
Where the Leones live today
Leone is among Italy’s 25 most common surnames, with about 15,000 families. Its heart is in the South: Apulia and Sicily, then Campania. Yet the town where it ranks first is in Piedmont: Rivarolo Canavese, near Turin. Most likely it was the trains of the 1900s that brought them there. The region-by-region map and the countries around the world where they settled are in the PDF.
Variants
In the South the form stayed whole, in Central and Northern Italy the plural dominates, and around them are diminutives and popular forms. The PDF explains where each one comes from.
| Surname | Where it is concentrated |
|---|---|
| Leone | Apulia, Sicily, Campania |
| Leo | Apulia, Campania |
| Leoni | Lombardy, Emilia, Lazio |
| Leonetti | Apulia, Calabria, Lazio |
| Di Leone | Calabria, Campania |
| Lione | Campania, Piedmont, Calabria |
FAQ
What does the surname Leone mean?
It comes from the personal name Leone, the name of strength and courage. Sometimes it was a nickname, given to a brave man or one with a strong character.
Is Leone a southern surname?
Mostly. It is most common in Apulia, Sicily and Campania: it is the ninth most common surname in Apulia and the tenth in the province of Bari. Still, it remains among the 25 most common surnames in all of Italy.
Are Leone and Leo the same surname?
They come from the same Latin name, Leo. Leone is the full form and the most common; Leo is the short one, strong in Apulia and Campania. Leoni is the plural, typical of Central and Northern Italy.
Are all Leones related?
No. The surname was born in many different places, from men called Leone who were not related to each other. To trace your own story you need birth records and parish registers.
Is the Leone surname noble?
The surname itself does not mean nobility. It comes from a personal name much loved in the Middle Ages and borne by a great many different families.
Is there a Leone family coat of arms?
There is no coat of arms that belongs to every Leone. Some Leone families put a lion on their shield precisely because of the surname. But the lion is the most common animal in heraldry, and thousands of families with other surnames carry it too.
