Macaluso
A Sicilian surname most likely meaning “son of Aluso” or “descendant of Aluso,” preserved in the island’s traditional Mac- patronymic form.
The #7,339 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 67,976 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Macaluso is a Sicilian surname built on the old patronymic prefix Mac-, meaning “son of” or more loosely “descendant of,” plus a personal name, probably Aluso. In practice, this points to a family identified by descent from an ancestor called Aluso or a similar medieval form. The exact source name is not entirely certain, but the surname is clearly part of the South Italian patronymic tradition.
History
The name is strongly associated with Sicily and appears in the wider Italian diaspora, especially in the United States. Like many southern Italian surnames, it spread overseas through mass migration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Today it remains most characteristic of Sicilian family lines.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Sicilian surnames with Mac- are relatively uncommon in Italy as a whole, which makes Macaluso a useful clue to a specifically island-rooted family history.