Where the Patti surname comes from
Patti is a place surname: it marked “the one who came from Patti.” Patti is a town on the Tyrrhenian coast, in the province of Messina, with the Aeolian Islands on the horizon. Whoever left it became, in another town, simply the Patti. For the name of the town, scholars suggest a Greek origin, and for some families there is a second road as well. The PDF tells what they are, and how sure they are.
A town born around a monastery
Today’s Patti was born more than nine centuries ago, around a monastery founded by the Normans. A queen still rests in its cathedral, and within its borders stands one of the best-loved shrines in Sicily. In the 1800s the surname went on to fill the theaters of Europe and America with the soprano Adelina Patti, daughter of a tenor from Catania. Their stories are in the PDF.
Where the Pattis live today
Patti is a Sicilian surname: there are about 3,300 families in Italy. It is found all over the island, but today its heart is the Agrigento area. The town where it is the most common surname is Favara, on the other side of Sicily from the town of origin. It reached Lombardy and Piedmont with the emigration of the 1900s. Outside Italy the largest community is in the United States. The region-by-region map and the countries around the world where they settled are in the PDF.
Anyone who searches for the surname online also finds many Pattis in India: there it is a local name, with no ties to Sicily.
Variants
Patti repeats the name of the town exactly as it is: the PDF reports no common variants of the surname.
FAQ
What does the surname Patti mean?
“The one who comes from Patti”: it marked someone who came from the town of Patti, on the Tyrrhenian coast in the province of Messina. For some families it may also come from the first name Patrizio.
Is Patti a Sicilian surname?
Yes. It is found all over the island, but today its heart is the Agrigento area, where it is the top surname in Favara. It reached the North with the emigration of the 1900s.
Are all Pattis related?
No. Many families left Patti at different times, each on its own. To rebuild your own story you need birth records and parish registers.
Was Adelina Patti Sicilian?
Her father, the tenor Salvatore Patti, was from Catania. She was born in Madrid in 1843, grew up in New York and became one of the greatest sopranos of the 1800s.
Do Patti Smith and Patti LaBelle have the surname Patti?
No. In America Patti is also short for Patricia: for them it is a first name or a stage name, with no ties to the Sicilian surname.
Is the Patti surname noble?
The surname itself doesn’t mean nobility. It comes from the name of a town and was carried by the families who left it. Almost no Patti family ever had a coat of arms.
Is there a Patti family coat of arms?
There is no coat of arms for the surname. Each coat of arms belonged to a specific branch of a family, in a specific place and time. It didn’t apply to everyone who carried the same surname.
