Where the Tamburello surname comes from
Tamburello comes from tamburo, the drum, with the diminutive suffix -ello. Behind it is an old nickname given to the family’s founder. He may have been the drummer at festivals and processions. Or the town crier, who beat the drum to gather people in the square.
A trade of the town square
In the towns of the past, the drum set the rhythm of everyone’s life. It called people together, opened the festivals, kept time for the march. The PDF tells how that sound became the name of a few hundred Sicilian families.
Where the Tamburellos live today
Tamburello is a Sicilian surname: about 1,900 people carry it in Italy, a few hundred families. Its heartland is western Sicily, in the inland towns between Agrigento and Palermo. Smaller groups live in Piedmont, Lombardy, Veneto and Lazio, the result of the migrations of the 1900s. The PDF has the region-by-region map and the countries around the world they reached.
Variants
Around Tamburello there are a few rare forms from the same root, including one close to the dialect pronunciation. They all lead back to the same drum.
| Surname | Where it is concentrated |
|---|---|
| Tamburello | western Sicily (Agrigento, Palermo) |
| Tamburrello | rare, with a double r |
| Tamburelli | rare, in the North |
| Tamburrelli | rare |
| Tammurello | rare, close to the dialect pronunciation |
FAQ
What does the surname Tamburello mean?
It comes from tamburo, “drum,” with the diminutive -ello. It was the nickname of the drummer or of the town crier, who beat the drum to gather people and read out public notices.
Is Tamburello a Sicilian surname?
Yes. Its heartland is western Sicily, between the Agrigento and Palermo areas. The families in the North and in Lazio left the island with the migrations of the 1900s.
Are Tamburello and Tamburrello the same surname?
They come from the same root, the drum. Tamburrello has a double r and is much rarer. In old records, the same surname can appear with small spelling differences.
Are all Tamburellos related?
Not necessarily: a nickname for a trade could arise in different towns. Since there are only a few families, though, the threads are easy to follow from town to town. To be sure, you need birth records and parish registers.
Do the American Tamburellos come from Sicily?
Almost certainly. The group in the United States descends from the Tamburellos who left western Sicily in the late 1800s and early 1900s, with the great waves of emigration.
Is the Tamburello surname noble?
No. It comes from ordinary people, from a nickname for a trade, not from a noble house. Its story is written in Sicilian towns and parish registers.
Is there a Tamburello family coat of arms?
There is no record of a coat of arms for any Tamburello family. Families with this surname never had one.
Where should you look for Tamburello ancestors?
In Sicily, civil records begin around 1820. Before that, you search the parish registers, kept regularly from the Council of Trent (1563) onward.
