Family name origins & meanings
- Italian : from Latin or dialect purpura ‘red’, ‘purple’, in some cases probably a nickname for someone with a florid complexion. It could have denoted a bishop or cardinal, with reference to the color of their robes, but is perhaps less likely to have survived as a surname from this source, or it may have been a metonymic occupational name for someone who dyed cloth or made ecclesiastical robes.