Maltese surnames : a historical perspective

Abstract

A former British colony, Malta obtained its independence in 1964 and became a Republic in 1974. It is now a democratic sovereign state within the European Union and the British Commonwealth. Its national language is Maltese, while English is a second official language. According to the Census 2011, the population stands at 416,0551. Malta has, by far, the highest density of population among all European Union nations. Malta’s contemporary repertoire of surnames, obviously, can only be explained in the light of past conquests and spheres of influence. Despite its small size, the island’s colourful and checkered history has always guaranteed a steady flow of foreign family names. Its cognominal pool is truly staggering, perhaps also vindicated by its being markedly overpopulated. A total of 19,104 surnames were in fact recorded in the 2011 census. The Maltese language is of Arabic extraction with a Romance superstructure, characterized by substantial borrowings from Sicilian and Tuscan Italian. In the second half of the 20th century, subject to the all-conquering influence of English, the local tongue has been embracing new words of mainly English origin.