Updated June 9, 2019

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Family name origins & meanings

  • Italian : habitational name for someone from Crete or, specifically, from its capital Iraklion, formerly known as Candia. The name is from Arabic qandi ‘rock sugar’, transferred to Crete because the Arabs had established a sugar refinery there; Candia is thus cognate with the American word candy. Crete was under Venetian rule at the time of surname formation.