Di Lorenzo
An Italian surname meaning “of Lorenzo,” marking descent from or association with a man named Lorenzo.
The #9,701 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 92,328 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Di Lorenzo is an Italian surname built from di, meaning “of” or “from,” and the personal name Lorenzo, the Italian form of Lawrence, from Latin Laurentius. In origin, it usually meant “son of Lorenzo,” “family of Lorenzo,” or more broadly someone associated with a man of that name. Over time, the phrase became fixed as a hereditary surname.
History
This type of surname is common in Italy, especially in southern and central regions, where many family names were first formed from a father’s given name. When Italians emigrated, especially in the 19th and 20th centuries, the space in Di Lorenzo was sometimes dropped in records, producing the compact form DILORENZO. The name is therefore best understood as a patronymic Italian surname rather than a descriptive label.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Because di simply means “of,” surnames like Di Lorenzo often preserve a snapshot of an ancestor’s given name more than a literal meaning in English.