Where the Spanò surname comes from
Spanò almost always comes from a nickname. In southern Italy, for centuries, people also spoke Greek. The word spanós described a man with a thin beard, or no beard at all. The first Spanò was most likely a man like that, easy to recognize by his smooth face.
The stress on the last syllable is the surname’s Greek signature. In Sardinia the same word became spanu, and that’s where the Spanu and Spano families of the island come from. There’s also another possible path, tied to a place on Mount Etna: the PDF tells both.
A judge on the throne of Gallura
Nine hundred years ago, in northeastern Sardinia, a Spanu sat on the throne of one of the island’s small kingdoms. Very little is known about him, but a document links him to a great maritime republic. Across the Tyrrhenian Sea, in Reggio, another Spanò saved the city from civil war in 1860. Their stories are in the PDF.
Where the Spanòs live today
Spano and Spanò have two hearts. The first is Sardinia, especially the north of the island, where it’s written without the accent. The second is the Strait of Messina, between the province of Reggio Calabria and Sicily. Counting both forms together, there are about 5,400 families in Italy. The town where the surname ranks number one is in Gallura: Bortigiadas, in the province of Sassari. In the 1900s many families moved to the North and to Rome. The region-by-region map and the countries around the world they reached are in the PDF.
Variants
The same nickname took different forms between the Strait and Sardinia. The PDF explains why, and where each one lives.
| Surname | Where it is concentrated |
|---|---|
| Spano / Spanò | Sardinia, Sicily, Calabria |
| Spanu | Sardinia, Lombardy, Lazio |
FAQ
What does the surname Spanò mean?
“Hairless, beardless.” It comes from the Greek spanós, “with a thin beard,” spoken for centuries in Calabria and Sicily. The first Spanò was most likely a man with a smooth face.
Is Spanò a surname from Calabria or from Sicily?
Both. Spanò, with the stress on the last syllable, is the form from the Strait of Messina, between the province of Reggio Calabria and Sicily. In Sardinia the same surname is Spano or Spanu.
Are Spanò and Spano the same surname?
They almost always come from the same nickname. In 19th-century records the final accent was often left out, and the same ancestor may appear as Spanò, Spano or Spanó. That’s why the two forms are counted together.
Are all Spanòs related?
No. A nickname like this one was born in many different places. A Spanò from Reggio and a Spano from Sassari almost certainly don’t share an ancestor. To trace your own story you need birth records and parish registers.
Was Pippo Spano a Spanò?
No. His name was Filippo Scolari and he was from Florence. “Spano” came from a title he had earned in Hungary, and it has nothing to do with the surname.
Is the Spanò surname noble?
The surname itself is not a sign of nobility. It comes from a nickname tied to the looks of the man who bore it, not from a title.
Is there a Spanò family coat of arms?
There is no coat of arms that belongs to all Spanòs. If a Spanò family from Reggio or a Spano family from Sassari had a coat of arms, it belonged to that particular branch. Almost no Spanò family ever had one.
