Pellegrini
An Italian surname meaning “pilgrims,” originally tied to a pilgrimage or a pilgrim ancestor.
The #8,263 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 76,975 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Pellegrini is the Italian plural form of pellegrino, meaning “pilgrim.” The word ultimately goes back to Late Latin peregrinus, “traveler” or “foreigner,” which came to be associated with someone on a religious journey. As a surname, it would originally have referred to a pilgrim, someone connected with pilgrimage, or a family identified by that byname.
History
The name is very common in Italy, especially in northern and central regions, and it appears in medieval records in forms built from the singular pellegrino and the plural pellegrini. Italian naming habits often turned such descriptive bynames into inherited surnames. The excerpted source notes the pattern of Italian surnames formed from singular/plural personal names, including Pellegrino/Pellegrini.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Because pellegrino means “pilgrim,” the surname often carries a distinctly religious-historical flavor even when it has become purely hereditary.
From the historical record
“party words of the Guelfs of Florence. Latterly, when these names in i were recognized as surnames, it was usual to christen a boy by the singular, and thus we have Pellegrino Pellegrini, Cavaliere Cavalieri, and many other like instances, familiar to the readers of Dante and of old Italian history. Dante's own…”
— History of Christian NamesNotable people named Pellegrini
- Peter Pellegrini (b. 1975)
- Manuel Pellegrini (b. 1953)
- Lorenzo Pellegrini (b. 1996)
Sourced from Wikidata; linked to their Wikipedia page.