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Il Mio Cognome Archive of Italian Families
Cover of the volume Surnames of the Aosta Valley

Volume · Aosta Valley

Surnames of the Aosta Valley

origin, meaning, distribution and fun facts

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€19.90Instant PDF · 175 pages

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  • In Italian and English: you get both versions
  • A4 format: read it on your phone or print it

In the Aosta Valley surnames look French and have cousins across the Alps: Favre is the blacksmith, Blanc is “white,” Brunod comes from Bruno, Bionaz from a village in the Valpelline. For centuries the valley spoke Franco-Provençal, the patois, from the same family of languages as Savoy and French-speaking Switzerland, and many surnames end in -az and -oz, with a z you don’t pronounce.

In this volume you’ll find 200 of the most common surnames in the Aosta Valley, from Mont Blanc to Monte Rosa, from the Valpelline to the Lys valley, from Aosta to Courmayeur, from Cogne to Pont-Saint-Martin. Alongside them, 100 lesser-known surnames, some extremely rare, almost all born here.

  • Origin and meaning
  • Map of the regions
  • Variants
  • Fun facts
  • The number one in town
  • Ancestor guide

300surnames

175pages

9history chapters

PDFinstant download

The volume at a glance

Surnames
300: 200 of the most common and 100 lesser-known
Pages
175, in PDF
Valleys
from Mont Blanc to Monte Rosa, from the Valpelline to the Lys valley, from Aosta to Courmayeur, from Cogne to Pont-Saint-Martin
Chapters
nine, on the peoples and stories behind the surnames: the Salassi and the Romans, Burgundians and Franks, the Duchy and the castles, the language of the valleys, the Walser of Monte Rosa, villages and alpine pastures, mountain trades, sons of… and nicknames, Aosta Valley people in the world

The volume

What's inside

  • For each surname, its origin, its meaning and the language it comes from, from the Franco-Provençal of the valleys to the German of the Walser
  • The map of the Italian regions where it’s common today and an estimate of how many families carry it
  • Where the surname ranks in the Aosta Valley, when there is a ranking: its place in the region, or the town where it ranks first or among the first
  • The variants and related surnames, meaning the other forms and spellings of the same surname
  • One fun fact per surname, from a town to a word of the old patois
  • Nine chapters on the peoples and stories that shaped Aosta Valley surnames, from the Salassi to Aosta Valley people in the world
  • The list of towns where a surname ranks first, and two indexes, by origin and alphabetical
  • A guide to start searching for your ancestors, a family tree to fill in and a surname scroll
Buy the volume · €19.90
  • Pay by card on Payhip, secured by Stripe
  • Instant PDF, and the link also arrives by email
  • In Italian and English: you get both versions
  • A4 format: read it on your phone or print it
A blurred page from the volume Surnames of the Aosta ValleyA blurred page from the volume Surnames of the Aosta ValleyA blurred page from the volume Surnames of the Aosta Valley

Blurred pages: the full text is in the PDF.

The Aosta Valley’s surnames, people by people

Before the Romans the valley belonged to the Salassi, a mountain people who controlled the passes and the gold mines of the Dora. In 25 BC the Romans defeated them and founded Augusta Praetoria, today’s Aosta. Latin words still hide inside the surnames: clusa, the narrow gorge, in Clusaz; glarea, gravel, in Glarey. Then came the Burgundians and the Franks, with their Germanic names: Berthod from Berthold, Girod from Gerhard, Vuillermoz from Wilhelm.

From the 11th century the valley belonged to the House of Savoy, and in 1191 Count Thomas I granted Aosta the Charter of Franchises. In 1561 Duke Emmanuel Philibert ruled that official documents be written in French, but at home people spoke the patois: the notary heard a name and wrote it the French way, with that final z nobody pronounced, as in Marguerettaz, Curtaz and Luboz. From the 13th century, meanwhile, the Walser came down from the Swiss Valais and settled in the upper Lys valley, below Monte Rosa: in Gressoney and Issime their Germanic dialects are still spoken.

Many surnames are villages, like Bionaz, Barmasse and Pramotton, or mountain trades: Favre, the blacksmith, is among the most common surnames in the region. Many left in winter: the chimney sweeps came out of the Valdigne and the Rhêmes valley, and many Aosta Valley people settled in Switzerland and Paris.

The volume gives a chapter to each of these nine peoples and stories, and for each one it lists the surnames in the book that carry its mark.

How to recognize an Aosta Valley surname

Some signs are easy to spot. The z at the end, which you don’t pronounce: Marguerettaz, Curtaz, Vuillermoz, Diemoz. It isn’t a sound, Treccani explains: it’s a mark that notaries and scribes used to French put at the end to show that the stress falls on the second-to-last syllable. The father’s name with an affectionate ending: Jacquemod and Jacquin from Giacomo (James), Janin and Jeantet from Giovanni (John), Perrin and Perret from Pietro (Peter). And nicknames: Blanc for fair hair, Joly for cheerfulness, Betemps for good humor. Many Aosta Valley surnames exist only here: Treccani lists Cerise and Bionaz among those that are practically never found outside the valley.

Town by town

At the back of the volume you’ll find the list of the 12 Aosta Valley towns where a surname from the book is the most common: in Ayas, for example, No. 1 is Favre, and in Cogne it is Gerard. Next come the surnames grouped by origin, from Franco-Provençal to Germanic, from place to trade, and the alphabetical list of all 300.

Is your surname in the volume?

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FAQ

Is my surname in the volume?

The full list of the 300 surnames is on this page. If yours isn’t there, request it through our contact page: new booklets come from the most requested surnames.

How is it different from the volume on Northern Italy?

The Northern Italy volume picks 300 surnames from eight regions. This one is devoted to the Aosta Valley alone: nine chapters on the region’s peoples and stories and, when there is one, where each surname ranks in the valley. 7 surnames are in both: the other 293 you’ll find only here.

Will I find the surnames of my town?

At the back of the volume there’s the list of the 12 Aosta Valley towns where a surname from the book is the most common. The surnames are also grouped by origin, and there’s an alphabetical list of all 300.

What’s the difference between the volume and a surname booklet?

In the volume each surname has a half-page entry: origin, map, variants and a fun fact. The booklet is devoted to a single surname and tells its story, its towns and its distribution in 12-19 pages, with a family tree and a surname scroll personalized with that surname.

Does the volume tell me who my ancestors were?

No. A surname tells you where a word comes from, and two families with the same surname can have completely different stories. At the back of the volume there’s a guide to start searching for your ancestors in the archives, free and from home, with tips for the Aosta Valley, where civil registration arrived under Napoleon in 1806 and Italian civil registration began in 1866.

Does the volume include my surname’s coat of arms?

No, because a surname has no coat of arms: a coat of arms belonged to one specific branch of a family, not to everyone who carries the surname. When a fun fact mentions one, the entry says which family it belonged to.

What if scholars disagree about the origin?

We tell you. When an origin is certain, it’s written as certain; when it isn’t, the entry carries the gray “disputed origin” badge and gives you the theories.

Can I print it?

Yes, for personal and family use: you can print it for yourself and your relatives.

Buy the volume · €19.90

Aosta Valley volumeBuy · €19.90

Buy the volume · €19.90