Find out how popular the last name Petrillo is in the United States and learn more about the meaning, history, and race and ethnic origin of people in America who are named Petrillo.

Petrillo, like all of the last names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the Petrillo surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Petrillo in America

Petrillo is the 7920th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Petrillo surname appeared 4,179 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 1 people would have the surname Petrillo.

We can also compare 2010 data for Petrillo to data from the previous census in 2000. The table below contains all of the statistics for both years in a side-by-side comparison.

The history of the last name Petrillo

The surname Petrillo originated in Italy, particularly in the southern regions of Campania and Basilicata. It can be traced back to the late medieval period, around the 13th or 14th century. The name is derived from the Italian personal name Pietro, which is the Italian form of the Latin name Petrus, meaning "rock" or "stone."

The Petrillo surname is believed to have emerged as a patronymic, indicating "son of Pietro." This naming convention was common in Italy during the Middle Ages when surnames were becoming more widespread. It is likely that the earliest bearers of the Petrillo surname were the descendants of a man named Pietro.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the Petrillo surname can be found in the "Codice Diplomatico Barese," a collection of documents from the 12th to the 16th centuries related to the city of Bari in southern Italy. This collection includes references to individuals with the surname Petrillo in the 14th and 15th centuries.

In the 16th century, the Petrillo surname appeared in various historical records, such as birth, marriage, and death records, as well as land registries and tax rolls. One notable individual from this period was Giovan Battista Petrillo, a 16th-century Italian composer and organist.

During the 17th and 18th centuries, the Petrillo surname continued to be prevalent in southern Italy, particularly in the regions of Campania and Basilicata. Notable bearers of the name from this period include Nicola Petrillo, an Italian painter active in the late 17th century, and Pasquale Petrillo, an 18th-century Italian composer and organist.

In the 19th century, the Petrillo surname gained wider recognition with individuals such as Enrico Petrillo, an Italian politician and lawyer who served as the Mayor of Naples from 1876 to 1878. Another notable figure was Giuseppe Petrillo, an Italian sculptor born in 1855 in Naples.

In the early 20th century, Nick Petrillo, also known as Nicholas Petrillo, was an Italian-American mobster and member of the Chicago Outfit, a prominent organized crime syndicate. He was born in 1894 in Acri, Calabria, Italy, and immigrated to the United States in the early 1900s, becoming involved in organized crime activities in Chicago.

Throughout its history, the Petrillo surname has been associated with various occupations, from artists and musicians to politicians and, unfortunately, organized crime figures. While the name originated in southern Italy, it has since spread to other parts of the world due to Italian immigration, particularly to the United States and other countries with significant Italian diaspora communities.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Petrillo

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname Petrillo.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups:

1. White only
2. Black only
3. American Indian and Alaskan Native only
4. Asian and Pacific Islander only
5. Hispanic
6. Two or More Races

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for Petrillo was:

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Since we have data from the previous census in 2000, we can also compare the values to see how the popularity of Petrillo has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of the name Petrillo was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Petrillo, please contact us.

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