Ortolano
Oxford Dictionary of Family Names:
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Ortolano
Frequency: (194)
(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: occupational name for a cultivator or seller of vegetables, ortolano, from a derivative of orto ‘vegetable garden’ (from Latin hortus ‘garden’).
2. Italian: from a term denoting a kind of bunting (a small bird, Emberiza hortulana, prized as a delicacy by Mediterranean gourmets); the surname may alternatively be a nickname from this sense.
3. Spanish: occupational name from a variant spelling of Old Spanish hortolano ‘cultivator or seller of vegetables’.
GIVEN NAMES: Italian 16%. Angelo (5), Carmela, Francesca, Girolamo, Pasquale, Salvatore.
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
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Oxford Dictionary of Family Names
Dictionary of American Family Names. Copyright © 2006 Patrick Hanks. All rights reserved.
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