Italian Last Names Starting With C: Meanings, Origins, and Regions

Italian last names starting with C include some of the most recognizable surnames in Italy, from Colombo and Conti to Costa and Caruso. Most of them began as practical labels in medieval Italy: a job a family did, a town a family left, a nickname for a person’s appearance, or a title a family served. On this page you will find 48 verified C surnames organized by what they mean, where they come from in Italy, and how they are used today, including as inspiration for girls’ names. Readers who came here from our Italian girl names homepage will also find a section on famous women who carry these surnames.

Before the lists, one note on method. Every meaning below was checked against a live surname reference, and where sources disagreed, the article says so. Italian surnames are family names, carried by men and women alike, so this is a list of surnames first, with a separate section on how a few of them also work beautifully as girls’ first names.

The Most Common Italian Last Names Starting With C

The most common Italian C surnames are Colombo, Conti, Costa, Caruso, and Caputo, all of which rank among the best known surnames in Italy and in Italian communities abroad. They cover the four classic surname types: nicknames, titles, places, and jobs, which is why they appear again and again in family histories.

Colombo, meaning dove, is linked to the explorer Christopher Columbus, whose Italian name was Cristoforo Colombo. Conti comes from the noble title conte, meaning count, and often marked a family that served a count rather than one that held the title. Costa describes a family that lived on a coast, riverbank, or slope. Caruso, in its older sense, described close-cropped hair, and later came to mean a boy or young man. If you are tracing a family tree, these five names are the natural starting point, because records for them are plentiful.

Surname	Meaning	Origin/Region
Colombo	Dove, or dove keeper	Genoa and Lombardy; surname of explorer Cristoforo Colombo
Conti	Count, from conte	Central Italy; often a family that served a count
Costa	Coast, riverbank, or slope	Across Italy, especially coastal areas
Caruso	Close-cropped hair; also boy or young man	Campania and southern Italy; tenor Enrico Caruso
Caputo	Head, for a big-headed or stubborn person, or a leader	Southern Italy
Coppola	A traditional Sicilian cap or hat	Sicily and southern Italy
Cattaneo	Captain (Ligurian variant of Capitano), or from Catania	Liguria and Sicily
Carbone	Coal, for a person with dark features	Southern Italy
Catalano	From Catalonia	Southern Italy, especially Sicily
Calabrese	From Calabria	Calabria, southern Italy
Capone	Big head, augmentative of capo	Southern Italy
Carrara	From the city of Carrara, famous for marble	Tuscany

For the wider picture, see our full list of Italian last names, which covers the most common surnames across every letter, not only C.

Italian C Surnames From Places in Italy

Many Italian C surnames are habitational, meaning they name the town, city, or region a family came from rather than what the family did. When a family moved, neighbors often called them by their place of origin, and the label stuck as a surname.

Some of these are easy to spot. Calabrese means a person from Calabria, Cremona and Cremaschi point to cities in Lombardy, and Cingolani comes from the town of Cingoli in Marche. Others hide their geography: Caiazzo comes from a city near Naples, Cisternino from a town near Bari in Puglia, and Campagna from places named for fields, from the Latin campus. If your C surname is on this list, your first research step is the town archive of the place named here. Corleone, too, comes from the Sicilian town of the same name, a fact worth knowing separately from its later fame in fiction.

Surname	Meaning	Origin/Region
Caiazzo	From the city near Naples, ancient Caiatia	Campania
Cantù	From the town of Cantù	Lombardy
Cassano	From any of several towns named Cassano	Across Italy
Cingolani	From the town of Cingoli	Marche
Cisternino	From the town of Cisternino near Bari	Puglia
Como	From the city of Como	Lombardy
Cremona	From the city of Cremona	Lombardy
Cremaschi	From the city of Crema	Lombardy
Catanzaro	From the city of Catanzaro	Calabria
Castiglione	From places called Castiglione, meaning castle or fortress	Across Italy
Campagna	From places named Campagna, from Latin campus, field	Campania and elsewhere
Cammarata	From places named Cammarata in Sicily, from Greek kamara, vault	Sicily

Italian C Surnames From Jobs and Trades

Occupational surnames are the most revealing kind, because they record what a family actually did for a living. A C surname from this group usually points to a trade that was important in the family’s home village, from bell making and leather work to hunting and basket weaving.

Some trades are still easy to recognize. Cacciatore means hunter, Coiro marks a leather worker or tanner, and Cannizzaro marks a maker of reed matting in Sicily. Others need a little translation: Campana comes from the word for bell, Capello from the word for a cloak or cape, and Cucinotta from a diminutive of cucina, meaning kitchen. Cavallo, meaning horse, marked a horseman, while Cavadenti, literally tooth puller, was an early name for a dentist. These names survive as a record of ordinary working life in medieval and early modern Italy.

Surname	Meaning	Origin/Region
Campana	Bell	Campania association; bell makers
Capitani	Captain	Across Italy
Cacciatore	Hunter	Across Italy
Coiro	Leather worker or tanner, from cuoio, leather	Southern Italy
Cannizzaro	Maker of reed matting, from Sicilian cannizzu	Sicily
Capello	Maker or wearer of cloaks, capes, or hoods	Northern Italy
Cavallo	Horseman, from cavallo, horse	Across Italy
Cavadenti	Tooth puller, an early dentist	Southern Italy
Cavagnaro	Basket weaver or basket carrier	Liguria and northern Italy
Candela	Candle maker, from candela, candle	Southern Italy
Cucinotta	Diminutive of cucina, kitchen; a kitchen worker	Sicily and southern Italy
Cavaliere	Knight, from cavaliere	Across Italy

Italian C Surnames From Nicknames and Personal Traits

Nickname surnames began as descriptions of a person’s body, character, or habits, and they are often the most colorful Italian surnames. A medieval neighbor might be remembered for white hair, a loud laugh, or a brave streak, and that description became the family name.

The head words dominate this group. Capobianco means white head, for white hair, Capaldo is a diminutive of capo, meaning little head, and Capone is its augmentative, for a big head. Animal nicknames are common too: Corvi means crow, and Cerva means a doe or hind. Character nicknames include Coraggio, meaning courage, for a brave person, and Cugino, meaning cousin, possibly for a well connected person. Carnevale, meaning carnival, likely marked a festive person, while Corti, meaning court or yard, marked someone who lived by one.

Surname	Meaning	Origin/Region
Capobianco	White head, for white hair	Southern Italy
Capaldo	Little head, diminutive of capo	Campania
Corvi	Crow, from corvo	Northern Italy
Cerva	Doe or hind, from cerva	Central Italy
Coraggio	Courage or bravery	Southern Italy
Cugino	Cousin or kinsman	Across Italy
Cotto	Baked or cooked, for a cook or baker	Southern Italy
Cocco	Darling or favorite, or hen’s egg	Sardinia and southern Italy
Cino	Short form of names ending in cino	Tuscany and central Italy
Confortola	From the given name Conforto, meaning comfort	Northern Italy
Carnevale	Carnival, for a festive person	Southern Italy
Corti	Court or yard, from corte	Lombardy and northern Italy

Italian C Surnames as Girls’ First Names

A few Italian C surnames also work as girls’ first names, and this is where surname lists meet baby name hunting. The crossover is small, because most Italian surnames were never given names, but the exceptions are genuinely used, and they carry the same meanings as the surnames above.

Celeste, meaning heavenly or of the sky, is the clearest example, used as a girl’s name in Italy and abroad. Colomba, meaning dove, is another, a traditional Italian girl’s name that shares its root with the surname Colombo. Costa appears occasionally as a given name in Italian American families, usually to honor a mother’s maiden name. If you are choosing between a surname and a first name, browse our Italian girl names starting with C for first names that pair naturally with these surnames, and our Italian girl names with meanings to check what each first name means before you combine them.

Famous Women With Italian C Surnames

Famous women with Italian C surnames show how far these names have traveled, from Sicilian villages to film sets and concert halls. Their stories also make the meanings above feel concrete, because each woman carried her family name into public life.

Filmmaker Sofia Coppola carries the Sicilian cap makers’ name into cinema, as the daughter of director Francis Ford Coppola. Actress Claudia Cardinale, born in Tunis to Sicilian parents, carried a name drawn from cardinale, a senior church title, through a long international film career. Earlier still, Francesca Caccini (1587 to about 1641) was a composer and singer at the Medici court in Florence, one of the first women known to have composed an opera. Together, these three show C surnames attached to art, music, and film across four centuries.

How to Pronounce Italian Surnames Starting With C

Italian pronunciation of C follows one simple rule: C sounds hard, like K, before A, O, and U, and soft, like CH in church, before E and I. That single rule explains most of the names on this page, and it is worth learning before you say a surname aloud.

So Caruso is pronounced kah-ROO-soh and Colombo is koh-LOHM-boh, both with a hard C, while Cucinotta is koo-chee-NOHT-tah and Celeste is cheh-LEH-steh, both with a soft C. Double consonants are held a little longer, so Coppola has a doubled P and Cattaneo a doubled T. Stress usually falls on the second to last syllable, which is why the capitalized syllables above carry the emphasis. These guides are approximate, and regional accents in Italy will shift them slightly.

For the full A to Z picture, see our Italian girl names A to Z, and for deeper surname history, the Behind the Name index of Italian surnames starting with C lists every verified entry with its etymology.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

Italian last names starting with C reward a little digging, because almost every one of them opens a door: a town in Lombardy or Sicily, a trade like bell making or leather work, or a nickname that described one memorable ancestor. Start with the common names, then check the place and trade lists for your own family name, and use the pronunciation guide before you say it aloud. If your surname is not on this page, the Behind the Name index linked above is the best next stop, and our Italian last names guide covers the other letters.