Where the Spina surname comes from
Spina comes from the Latin spina: the thorn of a plant, but also the spine and the backbone of a fish. The surname can have three different stories, and scholars can’t say which one is the most common.
The first leads to a place full of brambles and hawthorn. The second to a medieval personal name. The third to faith. The PDF describes all three paths.
A buried city and a relic
More than two and a half thousand years ago, at the mouth of the Po, there was a city called Spina. Then the waters covered it, and for centuries no one knew where it had been. On the bank of the Arno, meanwhile, a small church has borne the name of a relic for centuries. The PDF tells both stories, and what they have to do with your surname.
Where the Spinas live today
Spina is a surname found all over Italy, but its heart is in Sicily, especially around Catania. There are about 7,400 families in Italy. Campania and Calabria come next, and the surname is also strong in Molise. The town where it ranks number one lies at the foot of Mount Etna: Fiumefreddo di Sicilia. In the North it was partly born there and partly arrived with emigration from the South in the 1900s. The region-by-region map and the countries around the world they reached are in the PDF.
Variants
The same word gave rise to surnames with a diminutive, with the article and in the plural. The PDF explains where each one comes from.
| Surname | Where it is concentrated |
|---|---|
| Spina | Sicily, Campania, Calabria |
| Spinelli | Lombardy, Apulia, Tuscany |
| Spini | Lombardy, Tuscany, Lazio |
| La Spina | Sicily, Lombardy, Piedmont |
| Spinella | Sicily, Calabria, Lombardy |
| Spinetti | Tuscany, Lazio, Liguria |
| Spinetta | Liguria, Lombardy, Piedmont |
FAQ
What does the surname Spina mean?
It comes from the Latin spina, the thorn of a plant. It can point to someone who came from a place full of brambles. It can also come from an old personal name, or from devotion to the Holy Thorn.
Is Spina a Sicilian surname?
Largely, yes: its heart is in Sicily, especially around Catania. The town where it’s the top surname is Fiumefreddo di Sicilia. But it’s found all over Italy, from Campania to Molise, and in the North it was also born independently.
Are Spina and Spinelli the same surname?
They’re cousins: Spinelli is the diminutive and comes from the same word. Today it’s even more common than Spina, especially in Lombardy, Apulia and Tuscany.
Does the Spina surname come from the Etruscan city of Spina?
No. The Etruscan city at the mouth of the Po had vanished many centuries before surnames were born.
Are all Spinas related?
No. The surname was born in many different places, from Sicily to Lombardy. Two Spina families almost never have any link between them. To trace your own story you need birth records and parish registers.
Is there a Spina family coat of arms?
There is no coat of arms that belongs to all Spinas. If a Spina family from Messina or Cosenza had a coat of arms, it belonged to that particular branch. Almost no Spina family ever had one.
Did Assunta Spina really exist?
No, she’s a character invented by the Neapolitan writer Salvatore Di Giacomo, in a short story from 1888. She became famous through the movies: Francesca Bertini played her in 1915 and Anna Magnani in 1948.
