Where the Quattrone surname comes from
Quattrone doesn’t come from a place or a trade but from a word that traveled a long way. The most widely accepted theory traces it to the French quarteron, “the fourth part.” That was the name of an old coin and of a unit of weight. The word gave rise to a nickname, later passed from father to son. It remains a theory: the most likely one, but not a certainty.
From Calabria to poetry
The best-known Quattrone today was born in Reggio Calabria and tied the surname to the written word. He has won major literary prizes and brought some of the great poets of Europe and America into Italian. The PDF tells who he is.
Where the Quattrone families live today
Quattrone is a Calabrian surname: there are about 750 families in Italy. Its heartland is the province of Reggio Calabria, between the Aspromonte mountains and the Strait of Messina. The town most associated with it is Cardeto, inland from Reggio, where it is one of the most common surnames. A second, old branch lives in eastern Sicily, around Catania. The families in the North and in Lazio arrived with the emigration of the 1900s. The PDF has the region-by-region map and the countries around the world they reached.
Variants
Alongside Quattrone there is only one similar form, and it is very rare. The PDF explains where it comes from.
| Surname | Where it is concentrated |
|---|---|
| Quattrone | Calabria (Reggio area), Sicily (Catania area) |
| Quattroni | rare, scattered here and there |
FAQ
What does the surname Quattrone mean?
According to the most widely accepted theory, it comes from the French quarteron, “the fourth part”: the name of an old coin and of a unit of weight. It gave rise to a nickname, which later became a surname.
Is Quattrone a Calabrian surname?
Yes. Its heartland is the Reggio Calabria area, between the Aspromonte and the Strait, and in Cardeto it is one of the most common surnames in town. A second, old branch lives in eastern Sicily, around Catania.
Are Quattrone and Quattroni the same surname?
Almost always, yes. Quattroni is very rare and usually comes from a transcription error: whoever kept the register mixed up the e and the i. The same family could appear under both spellings.
Are all Quattrone families related?
Not necessarily. The surname is so tied to a few towns around Reggio that those who carry it there have a good chance of sharing roots. To be sure, you need birth records and parish registers.
Is the Quattrone surname noble?
No. It most likely comes from the nickname of an ordinary person, and almost no Quattrone family ever had a coat of arms.
Is there a Quattrone family coat of arms?
No single coat of arms belongs to every Quattrone family. If a branch had its own emblem, it belonged to that house and that town, not to the surname.
Where do you search for Quattrone ancestors?
In Calabria civil records begin in 1809. Before that, Quattrone ancestors are found in the parish registers, starting from the towns around Reggio.
