Picolo last name popularity, history, and meaning

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

Meaning of Picolo

An occupational surname derived from the Italian word for "small" or "little", often referring to someone of small stature.

Picolo, 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 Picolo surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Picolo in America

Picolo is the 135593rd most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Picolo surname appeared 124 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 people would have the surname Picolo.

We can also compare 2010 data for Picolo 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.

2010 2000 Change (%)
Rank 135593 134929 0.49%
Count 124 115 7.53%
Proportion per 100k 0.04 0.04 0.00%

The history of the last name Picolo

The surname PICOLO is of Italian origin, derived from the word "piccolo," meaning "small" or "little." It is believed to have originated in the 14th century as a descriptive nickname for someone of small stature or a younger sibling.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the name PICOLO can be found in the Florentine Militia Rolls of 1412, which listed a certain Guido Picolo among the enlisted soldiers. This suggests that the name was already in use and established in the region of Tuscany during the early Renaissance period.

In the 16th century, the PICOLO name appears in various Italian documents, including the baptismal records of the city of Genoa. An entry from 1534 mentions a Giovanni Battista Picolo, son of Antonio Picolo and Maria Rossi.

The name also has ties to the northern Italian city of Verona, where a noble family bearing the name PICOLO is recorded in the 17th century. One notable member was Girolamo Picolo (1608-1678), a respected jurist and legal scholar who authored several influential treatises on civil law.

As Italian emigrants began to settle in other parts of Europe and the Americas, the surname PICOLO traveled with them. In the late 19th century, a carpenter named Luigi Picolo (1845-1922) from the Veneto region immigrated to Argentina, where he established a successful woodworking business in Buenos Aires.

Another prominent figure was the Italian-American singer and actor Mario Picolo (1908-1997), who gained fame on the vaudeville circuit and later appeared in several Broadway musicals and Hollywood films during the Golden Age of cinema.

While the name PICOLO is not as widespread as some other Italian surnames, it has left its mark on history through various individuals and families, reflecting its humble origins as a descriptive nickname for someone of small stature.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Picolo

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

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 Picolo was:

Race/Ethnicity Percentage Total Occurrences
Non-Hispanic White Only 95.97% 119
Non-Hispanic Black Only 0.00% 0
Non-Hispanic Asian and Pacific Islander Only 0.00% 0
Non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaskan Native 0.00% 0
Non-Hispanic of Two or More Races (S)% (S)
Hispanic Origin (S)% (S)

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 Picolo has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

2010 2000 Change (%)
White 95.97% 97.39% -1.47%
Black 0.00% 0.00% 0.00%
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.00% (S)% (S)%
American Indian and Alaskan Native 0.00% (S)% (S)%
Two or More Races (S)% 0.00% (S)%
Hispanic (S)% (S)% (S)%

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 Picolo was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

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

Reference this page

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If you found the data or information on this page useful in your research, please use the tool below to properly cite or reference Name Census as the source. We appreciate your support!

"Picolo last name popularity, history, and meaning". NameCensus.com. Accessed on October 3, 2025. http://namecensus.com/last-names/picolo-surname-popularity/.

"Picolo last name popularity, history, and meaning". NameCensus.com, http://namecensus.com/last-names/picolo-surname-popularity/. Accessed 3 October, 2025

Picolo last name popularity, history, and meaning. NameCensus.com. Retrieved from http://namecensus.com/last-names/picolo-surname-popularity/.

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