Caputo
An Italian surname usually linked to a nickname for someone with a shaved head or a conspicuous head of hair, from a word for “head.”
The #3,483 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 30,101 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Caputo is an Italian surname built on caputo, a word associated with "head" and with head-related nicknames in southern Italian usage. It is commonly explained as deriving from a nickname for someone notable for the head itself, often interpreted as a bald or shaven-headed person, or more broadly as someone whose head or hair was especially distinctive. The deeper root is Latin caput, meaning "head."
History
The surname is strongly associated with southern Italy, where many such nickname-based surnames developed and later became hereditary. It is especially well represented in regions such as Calabria, Campania, and Sicily, and it traveled widely with Italian emigration in the 19th and 20th centuries. In the United States it remains an identifiable Italian-American surname but is not among the most common Italian surnames nationally.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Caputo is part of a large family of Italian surnames ultimately linked to Latin caput, a root that also underlies English words like “capitulate” and “capital.”