Prada History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
Italy
Spain

From the ancient and beautiful Italian island of Sicily emerged a variety of distinguished names, including the notable surname Prada. Although people were originally known only by a single name, it became necessary for people to adopt a second name to identify themselves as populations grew and travel became more frequent. The process of adopting fixed hereditary surnames was not complete until the modern era, but the use of hereditary family names in Italy began in the 10th and 11th centuries. Italian hereditary surnames were developed according to fairly general principles and they were characterized by a profusion of derivatives coined from given names. Although the most traditional type of family name found in the region of Sicily is the patronymic surname, which is derived from the father's given name, local surnames are also found. Local names, which are the least frequent of the major types of surnames found in Italy, are derived from a place-name where the original bearer once resided or held land. Often Italian local surnames bore the prefix "di," which signifies emigration from one place to another, and does not necessarily denote nobility. The Prada family lived by the fields or meadows. The surname Prato is derived from the local name Prato, which means field or meadow.

Early Origins of the Prada family

The surname Prada was first found in at Lecce, the historic city in southern Italy, the capital of the province of Lecce and a port city located on the southern tip of the Italian peninsula.

Early History of the Prada family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Prada research. The years 1229, 1292, 1330, 1352, 1359, 1370, 1400 and 1450 are included under the topic Early Prada History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Prada Spelling Variations

Italian surnames come in far more variations than the names of most other nationalities. Regional traditions and dialects are a decisive factor in this characteristic. For example, northern names tend to end in "o", while southern in "i". Also important, but not unique to Italy, was the fact that before dictionaries and the printing press most scribes simply spelled words according to their sounds. The predictable result was an enormous number of spelling variations. The recorded spellings of Prada include Prato, Prata, Prati, Prado, Prada, Pra, Dal Prato, Del Prato, Dal Pra, Pratello, Pratelli, Pratella, Pradella, Pradel, Pradetto, Pratolini, Pradolin, Pratali and many more.

Early Notables of the Prada family

Prominent among bearers of this surname in early times was Guglielmo Prata, an ambassador in Milan in 1229 who undertook part of the responsibility for renewing the city after the destructive invasion of Federico Barbarossa; Ser Lapo de'Pratesi of Florence is recorded as having been a priest in 1292; Cristoforo Prata was a respected doctor in Milan around 1450; also of this Milanese Prata family was Antonio, Senator and Supreme Chancellor of the Senate in Milan during the early 16th century; Daniele-Florido Prata of Friuli, who, from the Republic of Venice, received the title of nobleman, and...
Another 97 words (7 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Prada Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Prada Ranking

In the United States, the name Prada is the 18,040^th most popular surname with an estimated 2,487 people with that name. 1

Prada migration to the United States +

An examination of many early immigration records reveals that people bearing the name Prada arrived in North America very early:

Prada Settlers in United States in the 19th Century

Pedro Prada, who landed in Peru in 1837 2
Damaso Prada, who arrived in Puerto Rico in 1870 2

Contemporary Notables of the name Prada (post 1700) +

Miuccia Bianchi Prada (b. 1949), Italian billionaire fashion designer and businesswoman, head designer of Prada and the founder of its subsidiary Miu, as of March 2019, Forbes estimates her net worth at US$2.4 billion
Manuel González Prada, Peruvian writer
Jaya Prada (b. 1962), Indian film actress and politician
Ágatha Ruíz de la Prada (b. 1960), Spanish fashion designer
Raúl G Prada, Bolivian painter
Antonio J Prada, business executive
Carlos Prada Sanmiguel (1939-2013), Colombian Roman Catholic Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Duitama-Sogamoso, Colombia (1994-2012)

Citations +

"What are the 5,000 Most Common Last Names in the U.S.?". NameCensus.com, https://namecensus.com/last-names/
Filby, P. William, Meyer, Mary K., Passenger and immigration lists index : a guide to published arrival records of about 500,000 passengers who came to the United States and Canada in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. 1982-1985 Cumulated Supplements in Four Volumes Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co., 1985, Print (ISBN 0-8103-1795-8)