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You are here: Experts > Homework Help > Italian Language > Italian Language > Italian surnames ending in -engo
Italian Language - Italian surnames ending in -engo
Expert: Francesco Marchesani - 11/5/2009
Question
Dear Francesco,
I am a Ukrainian and my name is Olexander Martinenko. During my very first visit to Italy, on my way from the airport to Rome I was stuck seeing a very large poster ad of some products or services manufactured/delivered by a company of someone called Martinengo. I was so amazed that asked my taxi driver if that Martinengo was a Ukrainian. The taxi driver responded that no way, that Martinengo was a very well-known and ancient Italian family name.
Later on I learned that, apparently, Italian surnames ending in -engo were limited only to one region of Italy, namely Lombardia. Moreover, to my astonishment, I have even recently read an article of a Ukrainian researcher shedding some light on -enko and -engo surname endings. Pursuant to that researcher, both names derive from ancient Gothic names and both suffixes mean, essentially the same - 'son of'. (In Ukraine it is completely natural - everyone's undestandin of '-enko' is exactly as described above.) According to his theory, the ancient Goths had those kinds of surname endings (or designations of their sons) and when they moved away from their original areas of settlement they splitted into two parts - Ost-Goths who moved eventually to Ukraine and West-Goths who moved eventually to Italy and who later on became known as Langobards. Apparently, those Langobards settled in the Northern part of Italy, which eventually became known as Lombardia. Believe it or not, the two peoples now have inherited those ancient suffixes of -enko/-engo - Ukrainians (it is a very popular ending of Ukrainian surnames) and Italians (as far as I understand - quite rare in Italy).
Since then I have carried out tons of Internet and other searches in order to confirm or to deny the above theory, but have difficulties finding any information on the origin/meaning of the Italian surnames ending in -engo. I will be grateful if you could shed some light on that enigmatic matter and to provide me with your views on the origin and/or meanding of those rare Italian names.
Thank you in advance.
Best regards.
Olexander Martinenko
Answer
Hello,
the information you have learnt is correct: many words in Italian have a Germanic (mainly Gothic or Langobard) origin, including place names and surnames.
In particular, those ending with -ingo/inghi/engo/enghi derive from a Germanic suffix -ink/ing, meaning "belonging to".
So, in case of Martinengo, the meaning is "belonging to Martin" (as in the name of the village Martinengo in Lombardia), or also "son/descendant of Martin" as in the surname Martinengo.
The Ostrogoths (Eastern Goths) settled mainly in Lombardy, Piedmont and Tuscany, where most of the -engo surnames can be found nowadays; Martinengo is actually not very rare, there are probably 400-500 families bearing it.
Please note that the Longobards and Eastern Goths are not the same people: the Goths came originally from Sweden, then moved to Ukraine and thence to Spain (Visigoths = Western Goths) and to Italy (Ostrogoths = Eastern Goths) where they created a kingdom that lasted from 488 AD to 533 AD. The Longobards, instead, came from the Jutland peninsula (Denmark) and conquered Italy in 568 AD.
Thank you for your question!
Francesco
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