Milan
A surname that can point to the Italian city of Milan, and in some traditions to a hawk-like bird name used as a nickname.
The #5,543 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 49,257 Americans shares it.
Etymology
In most surname uses, Milan is tied to the city of Milan in northern Italy, so it began as a locational name for someone from that place. The city’s name itself is ancient, from the Roman-era form Mediolanum, whose deeper meaning is uncertain but is often explained as something like “middle of the plain.” In some Romance-language surname traditions, Milan can also reflect a nickname from the word for a kite or hawk-like bird, though that is a secondary line of explanation.
History
The name is common as a place-based surname in Italian and in Spanish-speaking areas, and it also appears in French surname material where bird-nicknames were productive. Because Milan is also a major city, the surname has spread widely beyond Italy through migration. In English-language records it may sometimes be hard to tell whether a bearer’s name is directly Italian or comes through another Romance-language tradition.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The city name behind the surname is one of Europe’s oldest major place-names and goes back to Roman times as Mediolanum.
From the historical record
“for this fontal name was due to the great SL Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan. The Church would not readily let his name be lost in obscurity (v. Yonge, Hist- Chris- tian Names, L 346). Ambroai is * tamiliar Italian surname.”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances