Ortolano Family History

Italian: occupational name for a cultivator or seller of fruit and vegetables ortolano ‘gardener’ from a derivative of orto ‘vegetable garden’ (from Latin hortus ‘garden’). The term was also used in the medieval period to denote both a cleric with a fervant devotion to pastoral work and a rough or uncouth person and in some instances may have been applied as a nickname in either sense.

Italian: possibly in some instances a nickname from the vernacular name of a kind of bunting (Emberiza hortulana) prized as a delicacy by Mediterranean gourmets.

Spanish: occupational name from a variant of Old Spanish hortolano ‘cultivator or seller of vegetables’.