Fabbri

The origin of the surname Fabbri

Fabbri comes from the Latin faber, a smith or craftsman.

What kind of surname is Fabbri?

As an occupational surname, the surname Fabbri began as a description of the bearer's job, trade or office — one of the oldest and richest sources of family names. In the medieval world, a person was naturally identified by what they did, so the baker, the smith, the miller and the weaver each lent their trade to a name that later became hereditary. These surnames are wonderfully transparent windows onto everyday life in earlier centuries, preserving crafts and roles that in many cases no longer exist. Because certain trades were common everywhere, occupational surnames are among the most widespread family names in many countries.

How Italian surnames work

Italian surnames are richly varied and often end in a vowel. Many are patronymic, sometimes marked by “di” or “De” (“son of / of the family of”), as in De Luca; others are occupational (Ferrari, “smith”), descriptive (Rossi, “red-haired”) or locational. Plural or “-i” endings frequently signal “the family of”, and regional dialects across Italy produced an enormous diversity of names.

Variants & spellings

• Fabbro