Where the Ragusa surname comes from
Ragusa is a place surname: it marked “the one who came from Ragusa.” But there are two cities. One is Ragusa in Sicily, the other is Ragusa in Dalmatia, known today as Dubrovnik. For Sicilian families the most natural explanation is the first. The origin is still debated, and the PDF explains every possible road.
The Garibaldi volunteer who went to Japan
A Ragusa from Palermo set out at nineteen with Garibaldi’s Thousand. Years later the government of Japan called him to Tokyo to teach. The PDF tells what happened there, and the name a Tokyo painter chose for herself.
Where the Ragusas live today
Ragusa is mainly a Sicilian surname, with about 3,200 families in Italy. It is found all over the island, from the Ragusa area to the Palermo area. The town where it is the top surname is far from the city that bears its name: Bisacquino, in the hills inland from Palermo. Outside Sicily you’ll find it mostly in the North and in Rome. The region-by-region map and the countries around the world where they settled are in the PDF.
Variants
The name of the city gave rise to different forms in Apulia, in Sicily and in the North. The PDF tells where each one comes from.
| Surname | Where it is concentrated |
|---|---|
| Ragusa | Sicily, Lombardy, Piedmont |
| Raguso | Apulia, Lombardy, Lazio |
| Ragusi | Sicily, Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna |
| Raguzzi | Veneto, Lombardy, Tuscany |
FAQ
What does the surname Ragusa mean?
It is a place surname: “the one who came from Ragusa,” the Sicilian city or Ragusa in Dalmatia, today Dubrovnik. Scholars also mention a rarer possibility, from the Greek rogós, “granary.”
Is Ragusa a Sicilian surname?
Mostly, yes: it is the 53rd most common surname in Sicily and the top one in Bisacquino, in the province of Palermo. In Apulia the form Raguso is more common, perhaps more closely tied to the Dalmatian Ragusa.
Does everyone named Ragusa come from the city of Ragusa?
In all likelihood an ancestor came from one of the two Ragusas. For Sicilian families the most natural explanation is the city in Sicily; on the Adriatic coast and in Apulia it may be the Dalmatian one. No record says so for a single family.
Are Ragusa and Raguso the same surname?
They come from the same city name, and Raguso is the Apulian form. Until the 1800s the surname was written by whoever kept the register, and the same family may appear under different forms.
Are all Ragusas related?
No. A place surname was born every time someone left one town for another, in different families. To rebuild your own story you need birth records and parish registers.
Is the Ragusa surname noble?
The surname itself doesn’t mean nobility. It was born among people who left one town for another, families of every station: farmers, craftsmen, merchants.
Is there a Ragusa family coat of arms?
There is no coat of arms for the Ragusa surname. The arms of the city and those of the Republic of Ragusa belong to the town and to the state they represented. They don’t belong to the families who carry that name.
