I was just reading this article, and I wanted to add that my parents tell me those names that begin with “Mal-”, like Malfara, Malatesta &c. indicate that somewhere along the line, there was an orphan. Orphans would get left with nuns or something like that (usually anonymously) and the nuns would name the kids. I guess the nuns didn’t always like the kids, so they would give them names beginning with “Mal-” because that means “bad.” I don’t know if this is actually true, or if the same holds for those last names beginning with “Buon-” (as in Buonfiglio &c.) for the kids the nuns did like. I just thought it might be interesting to look at the flipside of this topic.
D.