Most Popular Italian Surnames — Moretti

May 10, 2019

Number 18 Italian Surname Moretti

Number 18 on the list of most popular Italian Surnames — Moretti.  It’s hard to tell which of the name origins is correct.  Some sites list it as coming from the first name Mauro, some say dark hair and some say dark skin.  It’s quite possible that all of these origins are correct depending on the people and geographical location.  I could not find any verifiable COA for anyone named Moretti, so I used the next best thing!

Moretti History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

The name Moretti is a patronymicsurname, created from the personal nameMauro, which is itself derived from the Latin name Maurus. Patronymicsurnames were created from the name of the bearer’s father or relative, and gradually during the Middle Ages, these names became fixed hereditary surnames.

Early Origins of the Moretti family

The surname Moretti was first found in Modena (Etruscan: Mutna; Latin: Mutina; Modenese: Mòdna), around the year 1179.

Early History of the Moretti family  

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Moretti research.Another 30 words (2 lines of text) covering the years 1050, 1375, 1639, 1636, 1677 and 1735 are included under the topic Early Moretti History in all our PDF Extended History productsand printed products wherever possible.

Moretti Spelling Variations

Italian surnames have a surprising number of forms in comparison with other European surnames because they reflect the regional variations and the many dialects of the Italian language, each of which has its distinctive features. For example, in Northern Italy the most standard Italian surname suffix is “I”, whereas in Southern Italy the most typical surname suffix is “O”. Sardinian is very different from other forms of Italian and in fact, it is considered to be its own distinct language. Additionally, spelling changes frequently occurred because medieval scribes, church officials, and the bearers of names, spelled names as they sounded rather than according to any specific spelling rules. As a consequence of the major changes in the Italian language and in the localspellings of Italian surnames that occurred over the course of history, there are numerous variations for the surname Moretti. These spelling variationsinclude Moro, Moras, Morasco, Morassi, Morasso, Morassut, Morassutti, Moratelli, Morati, Moratti, Moratto, Morazzi, Morero, Moreschi, Moraschi, Moresi, Moret, Moretti, Moretto, Morin, Morini, Morino, Moriotti, Moriotto, Morozzi, Morisco, Moresco, Morisi, Mori, Morimanno, Moroni, Morucchio, Morucci and many more.

The Moretti surname is a Jewish Italian name. It is derived from the Italianword Moretto meaning dark hair and the Yiddishword Mordeven Zich meaning worker (or in some cases overwork). The name originated in the 1500sby Jewish immigrants to Italy who wanted to fit in to the brand new culture they were entering. While choosing a surname, they took Italian words and combined them with yiddish or traditional Jewish words or names. In this particular case, the words combined were supposed to mean dark skinned worker, but the Jewish immigrants did not have a full understanding of Italian at the time and the Italian word that makes up part of the name actually translates to dark haired, a simple mistake made by a lack of knowledge of the Italian language. When both the Yiddish and Italian words are put together to form Moretti it translates dark haired worker Some of these names are: Mordoue, Mordoy, Moret, Morita, Moritt, Moriyada, Moriyadi, Morretti (Moretti), etc. During this time period, the enlightenment was spreading through Italy and Europe and many of the jews in Italy were converted. Even though many Jews were converted, their names carry down the ties to Judaism that were once prevalent among a group of people. To this day Genealogists can find the ties to Judaism through many names including Moretti.

Moretti Links

Moretti Link from Ancestry

Moretti Link from Forbears

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