Where the Piccione surname comes from
Piccione began as a nickname taken from an animal everyone knew: the pigeon. It could be given for raising pigeons in a dovecote, or simply for looking like the bird.
The origin is debated. The most widely accepted explanation is the nickname, but scholars point to a second one that leads to a place. The surname is old, and it already appears in documents from many centuries ago, in places far from each other.
A name with many heartlands
Few surnames are as scattered as this one. The PDF tells how many lines there are, where its heartlands are, and why the same nickname arose in towns with no link to each other.
Where the Piccione families live today
Piccione is a southern surname with several lines. There are about 1,350 families in Italy, nearly 4,000 people, mostly in Sicily and Apulia, then in Lazio and the northwest. There are about 7,000 Piccione people in the world, and the surname traveled with emigration as far as the Americas. The PDF has the region-by-region map and the countries they reached.
Variants
Beside Piccione there is the plural form, Piccioni, which is more common and found more in central Italy. The PDF explains why they are not the same family.
| Surname | Where it is concentrated |
|---|---|
| Piccione | Sicily, Apulia, Lazio, the northwest |
| Piccioni | Marche, Umbria, Lazio, Abruzzo |
FAQ
What does the surname Piccione mean?
It comes from the name of the bird, the pigeon, as a nickname. It could refer to someone who raised pigeons or looked like one. The origin is debated, and a place name is also possible.
Is Piccione a Sicilian surname?
Its strongest line is in Sicily, above all in the Syracuse area. But it is also found in Apulia, in the Salento, and it has smaller lines in Calabria, in Rome and between the Alessandria and Genoa areas.
Are Piccione and Piccioni the same surname?
They share the same root and meaning, but they are not the same family. Piccioni is the plural form, more common, that grew up in central Italy: Marche, Umbria, Lazio and Abruzzo.
Are all Piccione families related?
No. The nickname arose in different towns with no link between them, and people who carry it may descend from distant families. In research, the exact town of your ancestors is what matters.
Is there a town called Piccione?
Yes, a small village near Perugia, in Umbria. Some scholars think a few families took their name from it. It is the second of the two theories about the origin.
Is the Piccione surname noble?
The surname itself is not a sign of nobility. It began as a folk nickname, not as a noble house, and it carries no coat of arms.
Is there a Piccione family coat of arms?
There is no coat of arms of the Piccione surname. If you find one for sale, perhaps with a pigeon drawn on it, it is a modern product: coats of arms belonged to individual families.
Why are there Piccione families in Monaco?
They are Italian families who settled just across the western border. In the Principality of Monaco, relative to the population, the surname is more concentrated than anywhere else.
