Via Family History

Altered form of French Viar 1 or perhaps of some other similar (like-sounding) French surname such as Vier 3 and Viat, a cognate of Viet. Alternatively, a Frenchified form of an unidentified German surname. Compare Viar 2, Viars, Vier 2, and Vire.

Italian (southern): from a short form of a personal name or surname ending with -via, for example, Bellavia. Italian (southern): from a variant of Bia, a personal name of Greek origin, a calque of Latin Vita ‘life’.

Spanish and Italian: habitational name from a place called Vía ‘way, path’. Catalan: habitational name from a village called Via in Cerdanya.

In some cases, possibly also southern French: habitational name from Via in Pyrénées-Orientales, named from the Latin personal name Avitius + the suffix -anum. This surname is very rare in France.

In some cases, possibly also Breton (Côtes-d'Armor): unexplained.