Galluzzo surname origins in Castel San Giorgio, Italy

According to our latest findings, the Galluzzo surname in the Campania region probably originated in 1250 - 1300, as a toponymic surname, i.e. derived from a place name. This is also the period when most of Italians started to use fixed hereditary surnames. In the centuries before they used expressions like Antonio son of Gabriele, Gabriele son of Andrea or Antonio from Galluccio (de Galluccio or de Galluzzo).

There is a small village called Galluccio in the province of Caserta. 
Galluccio is a modern version for Galluzzo, both deriving from the Latin Gallutius and meaning small rooster. At some point people moved from the fief of Galluccio spreading to other towns and using the surname [from] Galluzzo.  This is opposed to the other hypothesis supporting the bird nickname origin of Galluzzo, animal nicknames were often used in the Middle Ages.

Assuming a certain population grow model, it is likely that Galluzzo were already in Castel San Giorgio in 1300-1400. Certainly before the discovery of America! Maybe even earlier, but not before fixed hereditary surnames were adopted in Italy starting from around 1250. 

The oldest records of Galluzzo's in Castel San Giorgio date back to the beginning of 1500s, based on surviving parish records and civil archives. These older records are taken from the Archivio Diocesano di Salerno, a centralised archive in Salerno where they keep the oldest parish documents from the entire province. In most cases they start from 1600, but for St. Barbara rare documents from 1500 survived. There was a chapel on the same hill at least from 1309.

In 1575 the total population of the Torello - St.Barbara parish was of about 188 individuals, 32 of them were Galluzzo's, the second most common surname in the village after Falco (falcon), just another medieval 'bird name', who counted 43.