Updated June 9, 2019

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Family name origins & meanings

  • Italian : occupational name from balestriere ‘crossbowman’, ‘crossbow maker’, from Latin ballistarius ‘catapult maker’ (see Balestra). De Felice notes that the -ieri suffix shows the influence of Old French balestrier ‘crossbowman’, owing to the importance of these troops in the Angevin militias in southern Italy in the 13th and 14th centuries.