Sarno
A surname of Italian origin, most likely taken from the town of Sarno in Campania, Italy.
The #9,969 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 95,439 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Sarno is most likely a locational surname, referring to someone from the town of Sarno in southern Italy. The place-name itself is ancient and is connected with the Sarno River and the surrounding area in Campania. In surname use, it would originally have identified a person by their home place rather than by family descent.
History
The name is found in Italy and among Italian diaspora communities, especially in the United States. Because the form matches a well-known Italian place-name, the surname is generally understood as toponymic rather than descriptive. The excerpt provided only mentions Sarno in a list of Italian place-names, so it supports the locational reading but does not offer a dedicated surname explanation.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Sarno is also the name of a river and a town in Campania, which makes the surname easy to recognize as place-based.
From the historical record
“tamont, Susa, Pavia, Verona, Ravenna, Perugia, Ferrara, Florence, Santaeroce, Salerno, - Arno, Sarno, Adige, (see Tiber), Cosenza, Caserta, Bergamo, Loretto, Regio, Benevento, Sorrento, Gaeta, Monteverde, Monteleone, Montalbano, Novi, Como, Villalonga, Lodi, Marengo, Rivoli, Montebello, Areola, Solferino, Magenta…”
— A Grammar of American Surnames