The Italian surname Columbo derives from the Latin proper name, which in turn originates from the term columbus ou columba, meaning pigeon ou gentle dove.
Columbus was a very common first name among the first Christians, who associated the bird with Espírito Santo, and one of the most common in Italy, especially in the province of Milan .
Furthermore, there are theories that link the origin of the surname to the profession of a progenitor, who would be dedicated to pigeon breeding.
Nicknames
Another theory suggests that the surname would also have spread due to nicknames linked to toponyms, names derived from the name of a locality.
This last theory would be supported due to the people in the family who lived in the city of Columbanus, in the province of Rovigo, region of Veneto.
Until 1825, this surname was given to children staying at the orphanage at the Ospedale Maggiore in Milan, one of the oldest hospitals in Italy. The dove was present in the institution's symbol itself.
Variants
The surname Colombo can be found throughout Italy, but is more present in the central north and, in particular, in province of Milan.
Some of its variants are: Colombella, Colombelli, Colombina, Colombino, Columbo, Colombetti, Colombetta, Colombini, Colómbi and Colombari.
Colombelli is typical of the provinces of Bergamo and Milan, Colombetti is present in the areas of Cremona, Pavia and Milan. The variant Colombina is present in the province of Vicenza.
Colombino has a lineage in the province of Sassari and other presences in Piedmont and Liguria.
Regions
According to the site Cognomix, there are approximately 17.670 Families Colombo in Italy, and in the region of Lombardia he is the most popular. Then, the regions with the most occurrences are Piedmont and Liguria.
The Colombo family is also the most numerous in the province of Milan. The surname Colombo is the most commonly found in the city of Milan. Busto Arsizio, in the Lombardy region.
The site Forebears points out that the surname is more common in Italy, Brazil, Argentina, United States e Sri Lanka.
Geographical distribution of the surname in Italy:
Columbus in Brazil
The surname arrived from Italy to Brazil in the second half of the 19th century. Rio Grande do Sul Antonio Colombo, his wife and daughter came. They arrived to take possession of a plot of land in Colonia Caxias (today Farroupilha) on May 3, 1875.
Soon after, on June 3, the families of Ambrosio and Giuseppe. They were the first representatives of the family and surname, of many others who would arrive in the following years.
For Espírito Santo, between 1876 and 1895, just over 80 family immigrants arrived in the state. In total there were fifteen heads of families, the first being Giovanni Battista and Luigi, who arrived on December 11, 1876 and went to Santa Leopoldina Colony.
Columbus discovered America
The best-known personality in the family is certainly the navigator Cristóbal Colon, which in Portuguese form became Christopher Columbus (Cólon is the Spanish way of writing Columbus). The story goes that he was born in Genova, in Italy, in 1451 and died in Valladolid, in Spain, in 1506.
His Italian name was Christopher Columbus and the reason he went down in history was to have “discovered America”, when sailing between Europe and the New World, proving that planet Earth had a spherical shape.
Biographies
Another personality is Brazilian Fernanda Colombo, former football referee, who interestingly is married to the former referee Sandro Meira Ricci, cited by Italianismo, when the theme of the series Italian surname was Ricci. Like her husband, she works as a refereeing commentator on television.
Another famous member of the family is the Italian jazz pianist and composer Massimo Colombo, who has recorded and performed with names like Billy Cobham, Jeff Berlin and Peter Erskine.
Finally, it is worth highlighting the son of Italian immigrants Adelino Colombo, who was born in Farroupilha, in Serra Gaucha, in 1930, and founded in the same city the colombo stores, today one of the largest Brazilian retail chains.
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