Azzopardi is a Maltese surname presumed to be derived from the word Safardi. "Sephardi" refers to the Sephardic Jews, who are a subgroup of Jews that originated in modern-day Spain and Portugal and parts of North Africa. The Azzopardi families of Malta probably have their origin in Spain.[1] Despite the Sephardic background, the Azzopardi families in Malta have been Roman Catholic since 1492, when all Maltese Jewish families were ordered to convert to Catholicism or leave the Maltese Islands.
A similar surname is Azopardo, which is also the names of the Azopardo River (Spanish: Río Azopardo), a river in Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, Chile at the southern tip of South America.
In "The Origin of the ‘Maltese’ Surnames"[2], Godfrey Wettinger questions the assumed Safardi derivation of the surname. He suggests there may be an alternative derivation from two twelfth century surnames Accio and Pardo and cites a witness to a notarial deed signed in Genoa on 4 August 1201 called Ogerius Açopardus.
The reference from the publication is repeated verbatim here in case of loss of the original document: Ref. [27] For Accio see: Codice diplomatico della Repubblica di Genova, “Fonti per la Storia d’Italia”, Roma 1942, III, doc. 44, p. 120: Azo Rovedus, Azo Borel, giugno 1197; and Azo de Pangiano, Azo, Salvaticus, Azo Rovedus, and Azo de Avolasca in ibid., doc. 50, pp.131-132, 27 Agosto 1198. Ogerius Açopardus figures among witnesses to a notarial deed in Genoa on 4 August 1201: Giovanni de Guiberto (1200-1211), a cura di M.W. Hall-Cole et al., “Notai liguri del secolo XII, vol. V,” Genoa, 1940, doc. 350 in vol. I, 173.
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