Where the Lo Monaco surname comes from
Lo Monaco means “the monk”: lo is the article of old Sicilian. The word comes from the Greek monachós, “solitary,” someone who lived far from the world to pray. It is a nickname from a thousand years ago.
But monks had no children. According to scholars, the nickname was probably given to people who lived near a monastery. The PDF explains which monks they were, and why in the South they lived so close to the villages.
Saved by a mistake
In 1799 a Lomonaco from Basilicata was among the patriots of the Neapolitan Republic. When the Bourbons returned, many of them were sentenced to death. He survived, and part of the credit may go to a careless pen. The PDF tells his story, and that of his most famous friend.
Where the Lo Monacos live today
Lo Monaco is a Sicilian surname. In Italy there are about 1,000 families, plus about 500 who write it as one word, Lomonaco. Almost eight Lo Monacos out of ten live on the island, spread across every province. The town where it is strongest is Gallodoro, in the hills above Taormina. Outside Sicily you will find it wherever the emigrants of the 1900s arrived, in the North and in Lazio. About four out of ten live outside Italy today. The region-by-region map and the countries around the world where they settled are in the PDF.
Variants
The same monk gave surnames with and without the article, singular and plural, in different parts of Italy. The PDF explains where each one comes from.
| Surname | Where it is concentrated |
|---|---|
| Lo Monaco | Sicily, Lombardy, Piedmont |
| Lomonaco | Sicily, Basilicata, Calabria |
| Monaco | Campania, Sicily, Lazio |
| Monaci | Tuscany, Lombardy, Lazio |
FAQ
What does the surname Lo Monaco mean?
“The monk”: lo is the article of old Sicilian, and monaco comes from the Greek monachós, “solitary.” It was a nickname, probably given to people who lived near a monastery.
Is Lo Monaco a Sicilian surname?
Yes. Almost eight Lo Monacos out of ten live in Sicily, in every province. The town where it is strongest is Gallodoro, in the province of Messina. The form written as one word, Lomonaco, has a second heart in Basilicata.
Are Lo Monaco and Lomonaco the same surname?
Yes. Lo Monaco, written as two words, is the Sicilian form. Lomonaco, written as one, also has a cluster in Basilicata and Calabria and is the most common form in America. In the archives the same family can appear with both spellings.
Are all Lo Monacos related?
No. The nickname was born in many different villages, near many different monasteries: two Lo Monaco families almost always have no ties to each other. To trace your own story you need birth records and parish registers.
Is the Lo Monaco surname noble?
The archives record a few noble Lo Monaco families, in Enna, Palermo, Messina and Mineo. But almost all Lo Monaco families never had a coat of arms.
Is there a Lo Monaco family coat of arms?
There is no coat of arms that belongs to every Lo Monaco. The noble families recorded in the archives had their own arms, which belonged only to that branch.
