Where the Nicolosi surname comes from
The Nicolosi surname is the name of a town: Nicolosi, on the southern side of Mount Etna, above Catania. Anyone who left it became “the one from Nicolosi” somewhere else. The town most likely takes its name from an old monastery of San Nicolò, Saint Nicholas. So behind the surname is the name Nicola, from the Greek Nikólaos, “victor among the people.”
A town beneath the volcano
The town’s story is tied to Etna. In the Middle Ages a queen died there, and in the 1600s fire wiped it out, leaving two new mountains above the houses. Then there is a priest from Paternò who invented a way of drawing the world: mapmakers still call it by his surname. Their stories are in the PDF.
Where the Nicolosi families live today
Nicolosi is a Sicilian surname, typical above all of the Catania area, just a short way from the town it is named after. There are about 2,000 families in Italy. Its highest ranking, though, is on the other side of the island: in Bisacquino, in the hills inland from Palermo, it is the fourth most common surname. Outside Sicily it is found mostly in Lombardy. The region-by-region map and the countries around the world they reached are in the PDF.
Variants
The only true variant is Nicoloso. Then there are the many surnames born from the same saint by another road: distant cousins, linked only by the name Nicola.
| Surname | Where it is concentrated |
|---|---|
| Nicolosi | Sicily, Lombardy, Lazio |
| Nicoloso | Friuli, Sicily, Lombardy |
FAQ
What does the surname Nicolosi mean?
It refers to someone who came from Nicolosi, the town on the slopes of Mount Etna. The town most likely takes its name from a monastery of San Nicolò, and so from the name Nicola.
Is Nicolosi a Sicilian surname?
Yes. It is typical of Sicily, above all of the Catania area, where it is the 43rd most common surname in the province. Outside the island it is found in Lombardy, Lazio, Piedmont and Tuscany.
Are Nicolosi and Nicoloso the same surname?
Nicoloso is the only true variant, with one line in Sicily and one in Friuli. The Friulian one most likely doesn’t come from the town on Etna, but directly from the name Nicola.
Are Nicolosi and Di Nicola related?
The same saint is behind both, but the road is different. Di Nicola, Nicoletti, Nicolai and Nicolini come directly from the personal name; Nicolosi comes from the name of the town.
Are all Nicolosis related?
No. The surname was born every time someone left the town, in different families. To trace your own family’s story you need birth records and parish registers.
Is the Nicolosi surname noble?
The surname itself doesn’t indicate nobility. It comes from the name of a town of farmers and shepherds on Mount Etna, and it was carried by families who almost never had a coat of arms.
Is there a Nicolosi family coat of arms?
No single coat of arms belongs to every Nicolosi. If a Nicolosi family had its own coat of arms, it was the mark of that family, in that town and in that century.
