Family name origins & meanings
- Italian and Jewish (from Italy) : from the medieval personal name Vitale (Latin Vitalis, a derivative of vita ‘life’). The name was popular with Christians as a symbol of their belief in eternal life, and was borne by a dozen early saints; it became especially popular in Emilia-Romagna because of two saints, San Vitale of Bologna and Ravenna. As a Jewish personal name it represents a calque of the Hebrew personal name Chayim ‘life’. Compare Hyams.