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Venice, one of the oldest and most beautiful island regions of Italy, is the esteemed birthplace of numerous prominent families, including the family that bears the surname Ferraro. 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 are characterized by a profusion of derivatives coined from given names. Although the most common type of family name found in Venice is the patronymic surname, which is derived from the father's givenname, names derived from occupations are also found. Occupational surnames, which are less common than other types of surnames in Italy, date back to the feudal era. However, under the Feudal System, occupational names did not become hereditary until the offices themselves became hereditary. It was only after an occupation was inherited by several generations in lineal descent that occupational names came to be applied to entire families, and so became a hereditary surname. The surname Ferraro comes from the Latin word ferro which means iron. The family likely were blacksmiths.
The surname Ferraro was first found in Modena (Etruscan: Mutna; Latin: Mutina; Modenese: Mòdna), where records can be found in 1271 of the Ferrari family living there at the Villa Mugnano.
Saint Vincent Ferrer, OP (1350-1419) was a Valencian Dominican friar and preacher, who gained acclaim as a missionary and a logician. He is honored as a saint of the Catholic Church and other churches of Catholic traditions. His feast day is April 5th.
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Ferraro research. The years 1471, 1480, 1499, 1508, 1530, 1546, 1584, 1603, 1653, 1655, 1662, 1681, 1850 and 1865 are included under the topic Early Ferraro History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
There are many variations of most of those Italian names that originated in the medieval era. Some of these come from regional differences, like the tradition of ending northern names in "o" and southern names in "i". Others come from inaccuracies in the recording process, which were extremely common in the eras before dictionaries standardized spelling. Some of the spelling variations of Ferraro are Ferraro, Ferrari, Ferrario, Ferraris, Ferrai, Ferrero, Ferrarese, Ferreri, Ferrèri, Ferreli, Ferriero, Ferrieri, Ferrerio, Fevrero, Fevriero, Ferrer, Fer, Ferr, Fare, De Ferrari, Deferrari, Defferrari, De Ferraris, Ferrarello, Ferraretto, Ferrarini, Ferrarin, Ferrarotti, Ferrarone, Ferraron and many more.
Prominent among members of the family was Giovanni Matteo Ferrari, a doctor in Grado and the court physician to Francesco Sforza; Bartolomeo Ferrari was an ecclesiastic in Milan who studied law before dedicating his life to the church in 1499; Gaudenzio Ferarri (1471-1546), an Italian painter; Antonio Ferrero (died 1508), an Italian Roman Catholic bishop and cardinal; Lodovico Ferrari was a famous mathematician in Bologna in 1530; Benedetto Ferrari of Reggio (1603-1681) was a composer and in 1653 to 1662 was maestro of the chapel to the Duke of Modena; Giovanni Baptista 1...
Another 92 words (7 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Ferraro Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
In the United States, the name Ferraro is the 3,438th most popular surname with an estimated 9,948 people with that name. 2 However, in France, the name Ferraro is ranked the 3,557th most popular surname with an estimated 1,500 - 2,000 people with that name. 3
In the immigration and passenger lists a number of early immigrants bearing the name Ferraro were found: