Frequency: (1001)
(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, Catalan, Portuguese, southern French (Occitan), and Romanian: from sala ‘hall’, hence a topographic name or an occupational name for someone employed at a hall or manor house. Both the Italian and Catalan names may also be of habitational origin: in the case of Italian, from (amongst others) Sala Biellese (Biella province), Sala Consilina (Salerno province), and Sala Monferrato (Alessandria), and in the case of Catalan from places called Sala or La Sala. This name is very common in Catalonia.
2. Spanish, Asturian-Leonese, and Aragonese: in some cases, habitational name from places called Sala (Asturies and Aragón) or La Sala (Asturies).
3. Hungarian: from a short form of the Biblical name Salamon(see Solomon).
4. Muslim: variant of Salah.
GIVEN NAMES: Italian 11%; Spanish 9%. Angelo (5), Salvatore (4), Arturo (3), Enrico (2), Alba, Alberto, Biagio, Carmine, Claudio, Dante, Erminio, Giovanni, Giuseppe, Guido, Livio, Lucio; Jose (4), Manuel (3), Luis (2), Marta (2), Andres, Annaliza, Carlos, Cesar.
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
