Where did the last name GUERRA originate from?

Question

so far i know that the name is a well known spanish name from spain. but when i did research it states that 70% of this name originated from italy, spanish has 5 vouls and italy has 7 vouls in spanish you would say Guerra and in italy you would say Vinciguerra. can anyone help me out on this.

Answer 1

The way in which individual names are spelt has often changed several times over the years, and as Wendy C. explains, some names do have origins in different places and the only accurate way of determining the origin of someone with any specific name, is to do the research into that persons lineage.

Guerra    

Last name origins & meanings:

Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian: nickname for a belligerent person or for a soldier, from guerra ‘war’. In some cases the Italian name may represent a short form of various compound personal names containing this element, for example Vinciguèrra. The Iberian name may in some cases reflect a misinterpretation of the Basque base ezquerra, esquerra, from esker ‘left-handed’.

Basque: Castilianized form of Basque Gerra, a topographic name for someone who lived in a break or depression in a range of hills, from Basque gerri ‘waist’.

Answer 2

I found this for you on this site. http://www.surnamedb.com/

Surname: Guerra

This unusual and interesting surname is of Old French pre 9th century origins. Recorded in many spellings including Guerre, Guierre, Laguerre (French), Guerra, Guerrero, (Spanish), Guerreiro (Portugese), Guerri (Italian), Guerriero (Sicillian), and Warr or Warre (English), the name derives from the word 'guerre' meaning 'war'. Seemingly the surname was originally a nickname, which described either a soldier who had returned home 'from the wars', or a 'belligerent' person. The word as 'guerre' was introduced into England by the Normans after the Conquest of 1066, but it is by no means clear as to how the surname spread to Italy and the Spanish peninsula, as it does not appear to have a Latin base. Medieval nicknames were given for a variety of reasons including personal appearance, physical peculiarities, or moral characteristics. This gave rise to some very unusual surnames, many of which were obscene and crude! Examples of name recordings taken from various countries include John Warre of Lincoln, England, in 1468, Jan Guerre, at Bornville, Meurthe-et-Moselle, France, on August 7th 1575, Magdalena Ortiz Guerra, at Nazar, Navarra, Spain, on October 19th 1586, and Bartolome Guerro, at San Sebastian, Spain, on September 28th 1613, when he married Ana de Ortega. An interesting recording is that of Maria Joseph Guerra-Noriega, at Santa Barbara, California, on July 2nd 1826. The ancient coat of arms has the distinctive blazon of a red field, charged with a single silver lure. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Herebertus la Guerre, which was dated 1179, in the pipe rolls of the county of Dorset, England, during the reign of King Henry 11, known as "The church builder", 1154 - 1189. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

You actually answered it yourself, without realizing it.  Most persons assume that a name has ONLY one original location. That assumption is often wrong wrong wrong.  For many names, there is no way to be certain where it came from.. any research only shows where it maybe was first RECORDED.  Not the same as when it first was used.

One thing I am emphatic on, is explaining that surname etymology (investigation of where a name came from) and genealogy (identifying your ancestry) are not the same, although they seem related (pun intended).  In other words.. when you trace your ancestry, the key goal is finding the origin of your ANCESTORS.  If your Guerra ancestor was from Spain, Spanish is correct for you.. if they came from Italy, then you have Italian ancestry.