The surnames of the Maltese Islands : an etymological dictionary

Abstract

This dictionary is intended as a reference work for genealogists, social historians, philologists, comparative and diachronic linguists, but above all, for all those interested in the etymological and semantic scrutiny of family surnames. It does not include all the surnames extant in Malta today, but contains entries for all the major local surnames, as well as for many rarer ones. By 'Maltese' surnames, I simply mean surnames borne by Maltese citizens, regardless of their ethno-linguistic extraction. Hence one can sample Semitic (mainly Arabic and Jewish), Romance (mainly Italian, French, and Spanish), Northern European (mainly British, Irish, and German), and other continental (mainly Greek and Slavonic) family names in one huge melting pot. Arbitrarily, some very infrequent surnames and all extinct family names have been omitted. For purposes of this dictionary, a surname is defined as a legal identification tag as well as a heredity name borne by the members of a single family and handed down from one generation to another. Thus, surnames differ from forenames, as the latter pick out individuals within the same family. There are of course unrelated families bearing the same surname, but it is nevertheless a characteristic of surnames that all members of a particular family have a common surname European surnames are remarkably homogeneous. With few exceptions, the communities of Europe have similar social structures, similar social histories, and similar social norms. In many parts of central and Western Europe, hereditary surnames began to become fixed at around the same time (i.e. from the 12th century onwards), and have developed and changed slowly over the years, down to the present day.