Italian Last Name

hey, sorta unlikely anyone can answer this, but this board is known as one of the smartest and best able to answer any question.

I am helping someone figure out the origin and meaning of their name, first name was easy… last name… is proveing impossible

“Buttitta” is the name, its italian in origin, but yeah, I suspect its an alternate spelling of some other name, as searching there are only ~200 people with that last name in america. and that makes me think it must have come as a alternate spelling of a more common name.

any help would be great! they really want to know what their name means, and now I am interested too… since this is proveing so terribly impossible. anyone that speaks italian that can say “yeah that looks like it means _____ if you skipped a few letters”

There is always Battista, Baptist, (as in Giovanni Battista, John Baptist–a quite common name in Italy). I don’t know of any particular Italian dialect that drops “S” sounds from words (leading an Ellis Island official to misspell the ending), although it could also be that it was merely written as an error and the family simply gave up trying to correct the pronunciation and spelling in an effort to get and hold jobs.

I had a friend in HS who’s last name was Botitta (give or take a few t’s) That just might be the more common variation.

127 passengers with the surname Buttitta entered the U.S. through the port of New York in the period 1892-1924. The earliest was in 1899, the last was in 1923.

67 of them came from Bagheria, Palermo, Sicily.
More than 26 others came from other specified or unspecified locations in Sicily.
5 more passengers with the surname spelled Buttita came from Bagheria (3) or Sicily (2).

Today there are 191 telephone listings for the surname Buttitta in Bagheria, Sicily.

Word Reference.com says there is no translation.

Some names won’t translate, as many go back to older latin roots and have evolved into other words/names.

My name is “Leone”, which is an easy one: Lion

However, I have many friends and extended families ‘right off the boat’, as we say, and they couldn’t give you a ‘meaning’ or translation or their names which still float around towns in Italy.

Not just last names, but first names. For example, my father’s name is Filandro. Won’t translate and has no ‘meaning’ or definition, per se.

Here’s one that has puzzled me for the past 3 years: Bonavitacola. According to everyone I ask it means “good life cola.” Any opinions?