Although in the recent past having an Italian surname was a near definitive evidence of one's Italian ancestry, today bearing an Italian surname is no longer a sufficiently reliable indicator of ethnic origin.
As a result of mass immigration over the last twenty to thirty years, today there are more than 5 million people in Italy of foreign background. A number of these first-generation and second-generation immigrants — as well as those newly-arrived in Italy from other shores just a few years ago — have taken to altering their names and surnames, changing them into something more Italian-sounding.
With the exception of Albanian and Romanian immigrants, who sometimes adopt Italian surnames in an attempt to pass themselves off as locals, immigrants of European origin tend to retain their original surnames — indeed it is extremely rare for Germanic or Slavic immigrants in Italy to adopt Italian surnames. Immigrants from Africa and Asia, on the other hand, have been known to frequently alter their surnames. This includes immigrants coming from North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, India, China, as well as newly-arrived Gypsies and other non-European minorities.
Today there are also many migrants from South America, many of whom are
mestizos who have only partial Italian ancestry but still have an Italian surname, though there are many others who are not of Italian descent at all but have nonetheless adopted false Italian surnames after immigrating to Italy.
Whereas in countries such as the United Kingdom or Belgium immigrants often retain their foreign names (to the extent that ‘Mohamed’ is now one of the most popular names in those countries, while ‘Khan’ is the 12th most common surname in the UK), in Italy many migrants have instead chosen to adopt Italian names and surnames.
While in the past the practice of adopting Italian names was limited to only a few relatively isolated cases, such as Mario Balotelli (a footballer of Ghanaian origin), certain Jewish families or older gypsy clans which arrived in Italy a few centuries ago, today the practice has become much more widespread, almost pandemic. We are now faced with several thousands of cases in which immigrants of non-European origin have adopted fake Italian names and surnames, or in some cases inherited them from adoptive parents, and are now deceptively attempting to pass themselves off as Italians.
The motivations behind this trend are uncertain. Perhaps it is self-delusion; perhaps it is a desperate attempt to blend in and avoid discrimination, knowing that Italian natives are not as welcoming of immigrants compared to other European countries; or perhaps it is the first step in a larger plan: namely to pretend to be an “Italian” in the hopes of later obtaining citizenship in a more welcoming country, such as Germany, France or Sweden. In the case of South Americans, the name-change is often linked to immigration fraud: in the last three decades tens of thousands of South Americans have falsely claimed to be of Italian descent so as to obtain citizenship through Italy's
jus sanguinis blood laws.
In any case this fact must be emphasized:
just because someone has an Italian surname does not mean they are Italian. If you see a person who looks rather strange — perhaps resembling more a Moroccan or a Gypsy than a European — then there is a good chance that he is not ethnically Italian. Indeed it is not uncommon nowadays to discover foreign-looking individuals who pretend to be Italian, but who in fact have recent foreign ancestry; often they will hide the fact that they have foreign-born parents; sometimes they are the product of a mixed marriage; in many cases they are not Italian at all.
It is also not uncommon for people of other ethnic backgrounds to pretend to have Italian ancestry when living abroad. In particular, a disproportionate number of Albanian, Romanian, Iranian, Turkish, Lebanese, South American and even Indian immigrants have been known to hide their origins and pretend to be “Italians” when living in western countries. Numerous cases of this ethnic chicanery have been documented, especially in countries such as Switzerland, Sweden, Canada and the United States. Keep this in mind whenever you see someone with visibly non-European features who claims to be an Italian.
Once more,
just because someone today is born in Italy or has Italian citizenship or even has an Italian surname, this does not necessarily mean they are ethnically Italian. Below are some examples of non-Europeans of foreign birth or recent immigrant background who have Italian surnames. Note that despite their very Italian names, they are clearly not ethnically Italian.
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| Angela Etiope — Ethiopian |
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| Angelo Loffredi — Indian |
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| Daphne Di Cinto — African |
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| Emmanuel Galli — Korean |
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| Francesca Fiume — Chinese |
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| Gabriele De Luca — Afro-Brazilian |
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| Gaia Scodellaro — African-American |
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| Dario Moccia — Egyptian |
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| Martina Sammarco — Eritrean |
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| Fabio Liverani — Somalian |
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| Desirèe Noferini — Ethiopian |
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| Gilberto Gliozzi — Venezuelan |
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| Giulia Bertinelli — African |
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| Jennifer Giachetti — African |
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| Gianluca Busio —African-American |
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| Eric Lombardi — African |
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| Luca Palmieri — African |
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| Lucrezia Forni — Indian |
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| Mark Proietti — Filipino |
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| Maya Quattrini — Japanese |
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| Mauro Camoranesi — Indigenous Argentine |
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| Matteo Berrettini — Indigenous Brazilian |
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| Lorena Cesarini — Senegalese |
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| Tony Scarfì — Egyptian |
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| Mariana Manzano — Venezuelan |
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| Lorenzo Marinoni — Dominican |
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| Valentina Paganotto — Venezuelan |
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| Ethan Torchio — American Indian |
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| Margareth Madè — Egyptian |
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| Samy Margoni — Spanish-Indian |
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| Adele Sammartino — South American |
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| Belsy Demetz — Indian |
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| Carlo Alberto Di Micco — Afro-Brazilian |
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| Vittoria Piani — Afro-Brazilian |
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| Germano Gentile — Afro-Brazilian |
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| Marcos Piacentini — Afro-Brazilian |
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| Carolina Visca — Colombian |
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| Nadia Battocletti — Moroccan |
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| Jasmine Paolini — Polish-Ghanaian |
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| Miriam Selima Fieno — Libyan |
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| Stella Rotondaro — Indian |
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| Ambra Stucchi — African |
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| Romina Giamminelli — Seychellois Creole |
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| Stefania Rubini — African |
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| Sebastianna Scilipoti — African |
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| Lorenzo Ambrosin — African |
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| Leonardo Bertolini — African |
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| Tomasz Calligaro — African |
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| Nicholas Gioacchini — Jamaican |
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| Costantino Bechi — African
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| Dylan Thomas Cerulli — African-American
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| Nancy Colarusso — African |
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| Arianna Panieri — African |
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| Francesca Piersante — Afro-Brazilian |
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| Paola Ampezzan — Brazilian |
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| Eugenia Tempesta — Vietnamese |
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| Jun Lancini — Korean |
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| Nadia Caretto — Singaporian |
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| Valentina Margaglio — African |
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| Mattia Furlani — Senegalese
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| Cristian Battocchio — Indigenous Argentine |
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| Valentina Procaccini — Cuban |
