# Are there any Italian surnames not ending in a vowel? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 2, 2005, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-italian-surnames-not-ending-in-a-vowel/333780 "2005-12-02T18:35:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-italian-surnames-not-ending-in-a-vowel/333780/1 "2005-12-02T18:35:34Z")
I have never, in my entire life, seen a single Italian surname not ending in I, E, O or A. Are there any? ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-italian-surnames-not-ending-in-a-vowel/333780/2 "2005-12-02T18:36:46Z")
> [@Argent Towers](#): > > I have never, in my entire life, seen a single Italian surname not ending in I, E, O or A. Are there any? Director Dino DeLaurentiis is Italian, AFAIK. Not 100% sure if his name is, though. ---
**Author:** ![Sal\_Ammoniac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Sal\_Ammoniac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sal_Ammoniac)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-italian-surnames-not-ending-in-a-vowel/333780/3 "2005-12-02T18:43:24Z")
I’m sure there are others ending with S. “Santos” come to mind. ---
**Author:** ![tiltypig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dbc845/32.png) [@tiltypig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiltypig)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-italian-surnames-not-ending-in-a-vowel/333780/4 "2005-12-02T19:33:20Z")
I always thought Santos was purely a Spanish name. There are a lot of names in Italian ending in “n” that come from the Venetian dialect, such as “Manin,” and there’s a fairly important figure in Italian history called Cavour. (I guess his name may have originally came from France, though) There are palazzi in Venice with the names Loredan and Corner, but I don’t know offhand if those were named after families. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-italian-surnames-not-ending-in-a-vowel/333780/5 "2005-12-02T19:39:52Z")
> [@Argent Towers](#): > > I have never, in my entire life, seen a single Italian surname not ending in I, E, O or A. Are there any? Some famous Italian politicians: Agostino Depretis, Mariano Rumor, Alessandro Fortis, Giovanni Berlinguer, Enrico Berlinguer, Giuseppe Saragat. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-italian-surnames-not-ending-in-a-vowel/333780/6 "2005-12-02T19:42:26Z")
Looking at the names of the Deputies on the Italian Chamber of Deputies website, the following deputies have last names that don’t end in a vowel: Edouard Ballaman Giovanni Kessler Enrico Nan And of the Senators: Gavino Angius Milos Budin Luciano Falcier Renzo Gubert Domenico Kappler Alois Kofler Lucio Malan Giuseppe Mulas Augusto Rollandin Helga Thaler-Ausserhoffer Giuseppe Vegas Giampaolo Zancan ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-italian-surnames-not-ending-in-a-vowel/333780/7 "2005-12-02T19:53:03Z")
The Italian delegation to the European Parliament includes one named “De Michelis.” There are also several members whose names with “-er,” but those names seem like they are German-origin: Gruber, Kusstatscher, Berlinguer. The Italian Senate has people named Angios, Budin, Camber, De Petris, Fabris, Falcier, Gubert, Kappler, Kofler, Malan, Mulas, Sambin, Thaler-Ausserhofer, Vegas, and Zancan. In the House of Deputies, there’s Cabras, De Franciscis, De Laurentiis, De Seneen, Dussin, Franz, Illy, Kessler, Maran, Marras, Onnis, Paniz, Stagno-D’Alcontres, Widmann, (several of these also seem not to be Italian origin: Germanic, French, Hispanic). Man the Italian parliament is huge: 630 deputies and 326 senators. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-italian-surnames-not-ending-in-a-vowel/333780/8 "2005-12-02T19:56:55Z")
Damn you, Captain Amazing! ---
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-italian-surnames-not-ending-in-a-vowel/333780/9 "2005-12-02T19:59:57Z")
Sophia “Everything I’ve got I got from spaghetti” Loren. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-italian-surnames-not-ending-in-a-vowel/333780/10 "2005-12-02T20:04:25Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > The Italian delegation to the European Parliament includes one named “De Michelis.” There are also several members whose names with “-er,” but those names seem like they are German-origin: Gruber, Kusstatscher, Berlinguer. The Italian Senate has people named Angios, Budin, Camber, De Petris, Fabris, Falcier, Gubert, Kappler, Kofler, Malan, Mulas, Sambin, Thaler-Ausserhofer, Vegas, and Zancan. In the House of Deputies, there’s Cabras, De Franciscis, De Laurentiis, De Seneen, Dussin, Franz, Illy, Kessler, Maran, Marras, Onnis, Paniz, Stagno-D’Alcontres, Widmann, (several of these also seem not to be Italian origin: Germanic, French, Hispanic). > > Man the Italian parliament is huge: 630 deputies and 326 senators. Remember that there are parts of the country Italy which are not ethnically Italian By province: [ul][li]Friuli-Venezia Giulia, which is largely Romansh- (Friulian-) speaking and includes a few Slovenes and some ethnic Austrian Germans (from old Styria and Carinthia); [/li][li]Trentino-Alto Adige, likewise with quite a few ethnic Austrian Germans; [\*]Apulia, which has Albanian and Greek enclaves; [/li][li]Sardinia, which speaks Sard (arguably an Italian dialect or a separate language), with a couple of enclaves that speak Catalan; [/li][li]Valle d’Aosta, which is almost totally a Savoyard “French” dialect called Valdostano (ask a linguist about whether Savoyard is part of French).[/ul][/li] Our customary table at our favorite Italian restaurant has a poster hung above it advertizing Friulian beer. There may be more than this; that’s a top-of-my-head listing. ---
**Author:** ![YaWanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/bbce88/32.png) [@YaWanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YaWanna)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-italian-surnames-not-ending-in-a-vowel/333780/11 "2005-12-02T20:04:49Z")
> [@Captain Amazing](#): > > Helga Thaler-Ausserhoffer Aw, c’mon - she might be an Italian citizen, but that ain’t no Italian name! ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-italian-surnames-not-ending-in-a-vowel/333780/12 "2005-12-02T20:09:43Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > Remember that there are parts of the country Italy which are not ethnically Italian Which is why I said the _names_ seemed not to be of Italian origin. I suppose in this day and age, there would also be a lot of immigrants. Although, I don’t have an idea of the etymology of “Budin,” I do know that “Milos” is a Hungarian name. Perhaps someone in the know can pick out which of those names are definitely etymologically Italian. ---
**Author:** ![Dorjan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorjan/32/12440_2.png) [@Dorjan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dorjan)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-italian-surnames-not-ending-in-a-vowel/333780/13 "2005-12-02T20:30:13Z")
Perhaps most of the names that we associate with “Italian” are of Sicilians and people from the southern regions of Italy? IIRC most Italian immigrants to the U.S. were from those regions. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-italian-surnames-not-ending-in-a-vowel/333780/14 "2005-12-02T20:41:26Z")
> [@Dorjän](#): > > Perhaps most of the names that we associate with “Italian” are of Sicilians and people from the southern regions of Italy? IIRC most Italian immigrants to the U.S. were from those regions. As you can see, out of a list of hundreds of names of Italian parliamentarians, only a couple dozen were exceptions to the “ends with a vowel” rule, and we can see that several of these names are not Italian language-origin names by etymology. ---
**Author:** ![missbunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/76d3ee/32.png) [@missbunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missbunny)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-italian-surnames-not-ending-in-a-vowel/333780/15 "2005-12-02T20:48:52Z")
> [@MLS](#): > > Sophia “Everything I’ve got I got from spaghetti” Loren. That’s a made-up name copied from Swedish (?) Marta Toren. Sophia’s real name is Sofia Scicolone. ---
**Author:** ![ticker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@ticker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ticker)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-italian-surnames-not-ending-in-a-vowel/333780/16 "2005-12-02T20:51:08Z")
> [@MLS](#): > > Sophia “Everything I’ve got I got from spaghetti” Loren. That was my thought, but then I found she was originaly [Sofia Scicolone](http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=2:43272) ---
**Author:** ![TrivTriv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4491bb/32.png) [@TrivTriv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TrivTriv)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-italian-surnames-not-ending-in-a-vowel/333780/17 "2005-12-02T21:43:19Z")
I once had an Italian-American friend (supposedly full-blooded) whose last name was “DeAngelis.” That also happens to be the maiden name of Carmela on _The Sopranos_. ---
**Author:** ![yBeayf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e274bd/32.png) [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-italian-surnames-not-ending-in-a-vowel/333780/18 "2005-12-03T00:34:39Z")
My last name (Mann) is Italian (from Calabria) and doesn’t end with a vowel. It used to be Manno, though, before the travails of immigration took their toll. Sometimes I consider having it changed back to the original. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-italian-surnames-not-ending-in-a-vowel/333780/19 "2005-12-03T04:35:53Z")
**Polycarp** , according to Bogdan Zaborski’s map “Europe Languages” in _Goode’s World Atlas_, the Piedmontese dialect is classified under “Italian.” The map shows two small areas in Italy as speaking “Southern French”: Val d’Aosta and another valley at the western tip of Piedmont, between Turin and Grenoble. Also, the Nice-Monaco area is shown as speaking an Italian dialect, i.e. Ligurian. Helga Thaler-Ausserhoffer sounds like she’s from Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, where German is an official language alongside Italian. That was _Italia irredenta_, why Italy joined the First World War, to get Trentino-Alto Adige away from Austria and added a word, “irredentism,” to the language of international relations. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-italian-surnames-not-ending-in-a-vowel/333780/20 "2005-12-03T05:22:10Z")
One of the reasons why Italian is such a popular language for operas is because most words end in vowels, which makes for easier songwriting and better singing. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-italian-surnames-not-ending-in-a-vowel/333780.md?page=2)