Penna Family History
Penna Name Meaning
Cornish: perhaps a hypocoristic form (with the Cornish suffix -ow) of a name in Pen- such as Pentec ‘fair head’ (Cornish pen ‘head’ + tec ‘fine fair’) or a similarly formed Cornish hypocoristic form of the Middle English female personal name Penne a short form of Pernel (Penn ). Italian (mainly southern): probably a topographic name for someone who lived on a hill or peak or generally in an elevated location penna (from Latin pinnus ‘pointed’) a common element of placenames. Compare La Penna . Possibly also an American shortened form of Greek Pennas: from the vocabulary word penna ‘quill pen’ + occupational suffix -as hence a metonymic occupational name for a clerk or scribe. This is also the Greek feminine form of the surname.
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022