Severino
A surname from a Latin personal name meaning “strict” or “severe,” later used as a family name in Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese-speaking areas.
The #8,189 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 76,215 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Severino comes from the Latin personal name Severinus, a diminutive or derivative of Severus, meaning “stern,” “serious,” or “strict.” As a surname, it usually began as a patronymic from a bearer of that given name rather than as a descriptive nickname. The name spread widely through Romance-speaking regions, where Severino remained a common baptismal name and then passed into hereditary use.
History
The name appears in medieval Iberian documentation as a personal name, which fits the long survival of Severino as a Christian given name after Roman times. It later became established as a hereditary surname in Spain, Portugal, and especially Italy, and it is also found in Latin American communities through later migration. Because the excerpt provided is an incidental historical mention rather than an explicit surname etymology, the core derivation here rests on standard onomastic patterning.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Severino is one of many surnames that began as a saintly or Roman personal name before becoming hereditary family names.
From the historical record
“— 20 — Asturias , Severino y Ariulfo, donan sus bienes en 853 á la iglesia de Oviedo, y al hacer el se- ñalamiento los designan, ya por el nombre del anterior poseedor, ya por los de los terratenien- tes colindantes : cídivisam integram quse fuit”
— Ensayo histórico etimológico filológico sobre los apellidos castellanos