LODICO GENEALOGY INDEX PAGE

Origins of the name LODICO from the Petralia’s of the Madonie Region of Sicily
 

The surname is widespread in the two Petralias since ancient times.
In Petralia Sottana, in the "civil registry" of the seventeenth century, it is found in the "Laudico" version.

Three possible etymologies are hypothesized:

1) could be a patronymic and derive from the Nordic name Ludwig, Lodovico;

2) It could derive from the Latin "laudes dico", in affinity with the word "laudicenus", with the sense of a complimented and interested person.

However, none of these interpretations explains why the two Lodico and Laudico versions coexisted even in the same historical periods,
nor why the Lodico surname is found almost exclusively in Sicily,
with a high concentration in the Madonie, and not in other areas invaded by the Normans, or subject to the Roman Empire.

3) To these questions instead answers one last hypothesis: the surname derives from "Laodikeia" (in Greek: Λαοδικεία) or "Laodicea",
a name used by the Hellenistic dynasty of the Seleucids and was therefore imported locally from Hellenistic or Arab settlers,
to indicate their city of origin.

After the death of Alexander, the Great, on most of his domains in 323 BC his general Seleucus I took over,
which gave life to the Seleucid empire, including Syria, Persia and Asia Minor, and which also extended to the Sicilian Greek colonies.

Seleucus I, in memory of his mother Laodice, founded five cities named Laodikèia.
They were also created in Greece.
The most populous still exists in Syria and retains the name of al-Lādhiqiyya.

A proof of this last interpretation is found in some examples of the surname "Laudica",
found in inscriptions of ancient Rome, and which scholars agree to be of Hellenistic origin.

Centuries later, a fraction of Petralia Soprana, Santa Caterina LoDico, took its name from the LoDico families who had created it.

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Last update:   1/17/2020