Does the name Figueroa have any relation to the name Figaro?
Is the surname Ariella related to the name Ariel?
I’ve tried Googling, but not had any luck.
Just idle curiosity, no actual genealogy involved.
As far as we know, the name Figaro was coined by Beaumarchais for the central character in his play, The Barber of Seville, and all other uses of the name stem from that. This source suggests that it may be a rendering of fils de Caron, son of Caron, which would make it a reference to Beaumarchais himself - his father’s given name was Caron.
The surname Figueroa is older than the name Figaro, and so is not derived from it.
Well, there goes half my loaf! Who will bereave me of the other?
(Thank you kindly for the answer!)
I have never seen Ariella as a surname. The given name Ariel is from Hebrew; Ariella as a given name is regarded as a feminine version of that name, as is Arielle (though in fact I think for Hebrew-speakers the name Ariel is gender-neutral).
Arielli is a place-name in Italy, and it’s entirely posssible that a surname like Ariella could develop in Italian or another romance language, and have no connection at all to the Hebrew given name. But whether it did develop independently or not, I can’t say.
Huh, apparently Ariella might be another form of my great-grandma’s lastname, Arilla. I find a horribly-colored website which indicates that Ariella is listed in a 1495 census as appearing in the city of Saragossa; a check with INE’s lastnames webpage says that currently there are 12 people who have Ariella as 1st lastname and 12 who have it as second, of which 11 and 9 are in Saragossa province. Arilla is more common: some 990 people for each position, mostly in Saragossa and neighboring Huesca. (To see the current distribution of a lastname in Spain, write it where it says Apellido and click consultar).
I can find information about Arilla originating in Aragon, but nothing minimally solid about how. A page cites speculation that it might be derived from or otherwise linked to the French lastnames Aurillac or Arellac, but it indicates there’s no actual proof.
It struck me because I know two people (unrelated, I think) with the last name Ariella. (I don’t know them well enough to ask if they know what it comes from.)