Castro Family History

Galician Portuguese and Jewish (Sephardic): topographic name from castro ‘castle fortress’ (from Latin castrum ‘fort Roman walled city’) or a habitational name from any of various places called with this word. See also De Castro.

Italian and Jewish (from Italy): topographic name for someone who lived by a fortification from castro ‘fortification’ (see 1 above) or a habitational name for someone from the town of Castro, the center of a Duchy in Lazio (destroyed after its occupation by Papal military forces in 1649).

Compare Lo Castro.