Frequency: (185)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
Italian: metonymic occupational name for a saddler, from Italian, Latin sella ‘saddle’. The term is also used in a topographic sense for a mountain pass, and in some cases the surname may have arisen from this meaning. Sellas is found as a Greek family name, derived from the Latin word in the occupational sense.
GIVEN NAMES: Italian 13%. Enzo (2), Antonio, Dante, Geno, Giovanni, Libero, Marco, Piero, Salvatore, Silvio.
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
