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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • Spanish : topographic name for someone who lived on or by a hill or ridge, Spanish cerro, from Latin cirrus ‘bristle’, ‘hair’, ‘hackles’, or possibly a nickname for someone with a ridge of spiky hair like an animal’s hackles. Alternatively, it may be a habitational name from a place named with this word (in the sense ‘ridge’), as for example El Cerro in Salamanca province.
  • Italian : topographic name from cerro ‘turkey oak’, ‘cerris’ (Quercus cerris).

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