Where the Reale surname comes from
Reale comes from the adjective reale, meaning “of the king, regal,” from the Latin regalis. It was not a title but a nickname, given by the townspeople. It went to someone who had played the king at a folk festival, someone who had served a ruler, or someone with a proud bearing. In some cases it was also an auspicious name given to a son.
From the Risorgimento to rock
The surname has traveled far from village festivals. It was carried by a patriot of the Risorgimento and by one of the great scholars of Plato. It was also carried by a guitarist born in New York, the founder of a heavy metal band. The PDF tells who they were, and who else left a mark with this name.
Where the Reale families live today
Reale is a surname found all over Italy. There are almost 4,000 families, with the largest groups in Sicily, Lazio and Campania. The town where it is most concentrated, though, is in Calabria: in Ciminà, in the Reggio Calabria area, it is the third most common surname in town. Reale families also live in Piedmont and Lombardy, and many others left for the Americas. The PDF has the region-by-region map and the countries around the world they reached.
Variants
Abroad, too, the surname almost always stays the same: Reale. The PDF explains which archives to search outside Italy.
FAQ
What does the surname Reale mean?
“Of the king, regal,” from the Latin regalis. It was the nickname of someone who had played the king at a festival, someone who had served a ruler, or someone with a proud bearing.
Is Reale a Sicilian surname?
It is found all over Italy. The largest group is in Sicily, but strong branches also live in Lazio and Campania. The town where it is most concentrated is Ciminà, in Calabria.
Is the Reale surname noble?
The name makes you think of a king, but the surname itself is not a sign of nobility. It comes from a folk nickname, and almost no Reale family ever had a coat of arms.
Are all Reales related?
No. The nickname arose in many different places, among families with no ties to one another. To trace your own family’s story you need birth records and parish registers.
Is there a Reale family coat of arms?
Some Reale families may once have had their own coat of arms, but those were the arms of that branch. No single coat of arms belongs to every Reale.
How many Reales are there in the world?
More than twenty thousand, by cautious estimates. More than half live in Italy; outside the country the largest communities are in the Americas, the destinations of the great wave of emigration.
Where can I search for Reale ancestors?
On the southern mainland civil registration begins in 1809, in Sicily in 1820. Before those dates, you search the parish registers, kept from the Council of Trent (1563) onward.
