Cocchi History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

The surname Cocchi was first found in on the island of Sardinia, which is northwest of Sicily and approximately the same size. The name also appears on the mainland in Tuscany, Emilia and Venezia. When the name appears in the north of mainland Italy, it is usually in a form ending with "i," whereas southern branches of the family tend to have adopted the southern tradition of ending their name in "o." Venezia is the exception to these rules, as the name most frequently appears there in the forms Coccon and Coccato. There are several possibilities for the meaning of this name. The first is that it comes from the Italian word "cocco," meaning "palm tree," in which case the first bearer of the name probably lived near an exceptionally large or strange-looking palm tree. The second is that it comes from the word "cucco," meaning "a very old or senile man," in which case the first bearer was such a man, or perhaps merely looked much older than he really was. The third possibility is that the name is meant to resemble the sound of an eggshell cracking, which would suggest that the first bearer of the name was a chicken farmer.