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| Origins Available: |
| | Italy |
From the historical and enchanting Italian region of Tuscany emerged a multitude of noble families, including the distinguished Capo family. During the Middle Ages, as populations grew and travel between regions became more frequent, the people of Tuscany found it necessary to adopt a second name to identify themselves and their families. 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 common type of family name found in Tuscany is the patronymic surname, which is derived from the father's given name, the nickname type of surname is also frequently found. Nickname surnames were derived from an eke-name, or added name. They usually reflected the physical characteristics or attributes of the first person that used the name. The surname Capo is a name for person who was the chief of the head from the Italian personal name Capo.
The surname Capo was first found in Florence (Italian: Firenze), where earliest records show Tenzone Caponsacco lived with his family in 1071. Other important people include Francesco Capi of Siena, a theologian who became Archbishop of Venice in 1461; Giacomo Capi was a knight in Mantua during the 15th century; Giovanni Francesco Capi was a knight and diplomat in Mantua around the same time.
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Capo research. Another 90 words (6 lines of text) covering the years 1273, 1391, 1404, 1532, 1610, 1612, 1812 and 1821 are included under the topic Early Capo History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
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 Capo include Capo, Capone, Caponi, Caponio, Caponetto, Caponetti, Caponnetto, Capoccia, Capi, Capozzi, Capocci, Capoccetti, Capoccioni, Capozza, Capozzo, Capozio and many more.
Prominent among members of the family was
In the United States, the name Capo is the 12,462nd most popular surname with an estimated 2,487 people with that name. 1 However, in France, the name Capo is ranked the 8,150th most popular surname with an estimated 1,000 - 1,500 people with that name. 2
In the immigration and passenger lists a number of early immigrants bearing the name Capo were found: