Frequency: (3080)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
1. Italian: from the title of rank conte ‘count’ (from Latin comes, genitive comitis ‘companion’). Probably in this sense (and the Late Latin sense of ‘traveling companion’), it was a medieval personal name; as a title it was no doubt applied ironically as a nickname for someone with airs and graces or simply for someone who worked in the service of a count.
2. English: variant of Count, cognate with 1.
3. French: nickname for someone in the service of a count or for someone who behaved pretentiously, from Old French conte, cunte ‘count’ (of the same derivation as 1).
4. French (Conté): variant of Comté (see Comte).
GIVEN NAMES: Italian 21%. Mario (24), Angelo (11), Salvatore (11), Antonio (8), Rocco (8), Carmine (7), Pasquale (7), Luigi (6), Silvio (6), Silverio (5), Giuseppe (4), Sal (4), Alfonso (3), Biagio (3), Carlo (3), Emilio (3), Fernando (3), Gerardo (3).
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
