Frequency: (177)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
Italian (Messina): 1. from a variant of the personal name Caetano (see Gaetano). 2. variant of Cattano, an occupational name for a producer or seller of cotton, from Arabic quaṠṠān. 3. variant of Cattaneo. 4. with the stress on the second a, it could be from Old Italian cattano ‘captain’.
GIVEN NAMES: Spanish 39%; Italian 9%. Jose (5), Alfredo (2), Armando (2), Genaro (2), Gustavo (2), Jesus (2), Alba, Arturo, Audelia, Aurelio, Camila, Carlos; Antonio (3), Angelo, Carmel, Dario, Nicolo.
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
