Cara History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms 

From the ancient and beautiful Italian island of Sicily emerged a variety of distinguished names, including the notable surname Cara. 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. Local names, also 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 Cara family lived in a town just outside Palermo, as in 1189, a member of the Caro family was the Archbishop of Monreale.

Early Origins of the Cara family

The surname Cara was first found in Sicily (Italian: Sicilia), the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, Naples and the southern portion of the peninsula. Research shows that records of the Cara family date back to the year 1189 when a member of the Caro family was the Archbishop of Monreale, a town just outside Palermo.

Early History of the Cara family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Cara research. The years 1460, 1470, 1499, 1507, 1508, 1520, 1525, 1543, 1557, 1566, 1571, 1602, 1610, 1653, 1713, 1725, 1770, 1825 and 1841 are included under the topic Early Cara History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Cara 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 Cara include Caro, Cari, Cara, De Caro, Di Caro, Di Cara, La Cara, Li Cari, Carello, Carelli, Carella, Carillo, Caretti, Caroli, Caretta, Carino, Carini, Caruccio, Carucci, Carocci, Carracci, Caricchio, Caricchia, Carollo, Carullo, Carulli, Carotti, Carone, Caroni, Carofiglio, Carofratello, Carolillo, Carotenuto and many more.

Early Notables of the Cara family

Prominent among bearers of this surname in early times was

• Marchetto Cara (c. 1470-1525), an Italian composer, lutenist and singer of the Renaissance
• Michelangelo Merisi (Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi) da Caravaggio, (1571-1610), was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. He is most famous for his technique of "Chiaros...
• Polidoro Caldara, usually known as Polidoro da Caravaggio (c. 1499-1543) was an Italian painter of the Mannerist period, "arguably the most gifted and certainly the least conventional of Raphael's pup...

Cara Ranking

In France, the name Cara is the 5,927^th most popular surname with an estimated 1,000 - 1,500 people with that name. 1

Cara migration to the United States +

Cara migration to New Zealand +

Contemporary Notables of the name Cara (post 1700) +

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