Papa Family History
Papa Surname Meaning
Italian: nickname from papa ‘father cleric pope’. In southern Italy it is generally a nickname for someone thought to resemble a priest or, in some cases, for the illegitimate child of a priest. However, in the North, it more often serves as a nickname meaning ‘pope’, denoting a vain or pompous man. In some parts of Calabria, the term also signifies ‘uncle’.
American shortened form (and Greek feminine form denoting ‘the daughter or wife of’) of Greek Papas ‘priest’ and of patronymics beginning with Papa-, for example, Papageorgiou. Albanian (mainly southern): status name from regional papa, a title for an Orthodox priest, ultimately derived from Greek pappas ‘father’; or, in part, an adaptation of the cognate Greek surname Papas.
Hungarian (Pápa): probably from the old personal name Pápa, but in some cases possibly a habitational name from a place called Pápa in Veszprém County. West Frisian and Dutch: variant of Papma, itself a variant of Popma ‘descendants of Poppe’ from an ancient Germanic personal name Poppo (see Popp).
English and French: variant of Pape.
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022