I've been really looking into the history of last names in my family tree lately (I had posted something on the VENTURA surname here recently) and I had come across a new family name in my research, so I though I would ask the group about this one. The name is LOFARO. It is interesting because, like VENTURA, this name also may have Spanish roots. I have found some variations of the name, including: IL FARO, LE FARO, ALFARO. ALFARO is Spanish, and comes from Arabic "al" and Spanish "faro", meaning "the lighthouse." All variations of the name mean "lighthouse."

With regards to the Italian background of the name, I have been told that it is Sicilian and that it is also translated as "lighthouse." It comes from several places in Sicily and supposedly refers to a village of the same name. I have not been able to locate this village nor any mention of it, so I do not yet have any information on this village. Whether the name came to Sicily from elsewhere, I do not know yet.

I have searched the forums here and have not found any mention of this name, so I though I would ask and see if anyone else has come across this surname as well and can provide any background information on it.

I found a few people by that name in the Italian white pages. If you fill in Sicilia in the blank you do a search for Lofaros there.

www.paginebianche.it/e...LOFARO&dv=

If the above link doesn't work try copying and pasting it.

That could be helpful eventually, if I wanted to contact distant family in Italy, but for now I am actually interested in the linguistic origins of the name.

Sorry, that is way out of my league! Good luck.

I would disregad the Lo as you look for the origin. When looking for Faro, I found two Sicilian connections:

There is a frazione of Messina which is called Torre Faro.

And the Straight of Messina used to be called Faro di Messina.

Faro = Lighthouse

Yes, I have already learned that the name means lighthouse. I was curious as to the linguistic origins of the name. Because it has numerous possible origins, I wondered if the Italian name came from Italy or someplace else.