Family name origins & meanings
- Italian : habitational name from any of various places in Italy named or named with Cantalupo, thought to be a grimly humorous name derived from Latin cantare ‘to sing’ + lupus ‘wolf’, i.e. denoting a settlement where the wolves could be heard howling in the uncleared woods around. This is a widespread place name but some scholars now dispute its derivation, believing it to have been altered by folk etymology.