Family name origins & meanings
- Southern Italian (La Spina) : from spina ‘thorn’ (Latin spina), with the definite article la, applied as a topographic name for someone who lived by a thorn bush or in an area of scrubland, or (in a transferred sense) for someone who lived by the crest or ridge of a hill. It could also be a nickname for a tall, thin, spiky person.
- Southern Italian (La Spina) : from a short form of a personal name formed with this word for its Christian associations, for example Fiordespina, Despina, Malaspina.