Pace is a surname in both Italian and English. In addition to being found in Italy and England, it is also found in Germany, is very common in Malta, and can be found among Italian and British immigrants in places like the United States. The Pace family are prominent in (particularly) Malta and in Sicily. They held ancient fiefdoms in both countries.
While pronunciation varies according to one's linguistic heritage, the two most common variants are the English "Pace", rhyming with "race", and the Italian "PAH-chay".
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There are at least two independent origins of the name Pace, one in Italy and the other in England, but everywhere it's a surname of Latin origins. Maltese Paces can ultimately trace their name back to Italy while German Paces can ultimately trace their name back to England.
Others argue that Pace is an unusual surname of French origins, and it is recorded in the spellings of Peace, Pace, Paice, Pase, Payce, and possibly others as well. It has two possible origins. The first being from an early medieval nickname for a mild-mannered and even-tempered man, derived from the Anglo-Norman-French and Middle English word "pace" or "pece", ultimately from the Latin "pax", "pacis", meaning "peace", concord or amity. However given the Medieval propensity for sarcasm, it must also be assumed that some nameholders were the opposite to 'peaceful'. The second possible origin is from the result of confusion with the personal name "Pash" or "Pask(e)", used frequently in medieval England as both a given and a nickname for a person born at Easter, or with some other connection with that religious festival. This could have been a feudal obligation, perhaps providing a service, or even goods, on that date. The surname dates back to the early 13th Century (see below) and early examples of the recordings include Roger Pays in the 1275 Hundred Rolls of Norfolk, William Pace in 1242 the 'Book of Fees' for Devonshire and Peter Pece of Yorkshire in 1302. Examples of church recordings include the marriage of Alice Pace to Thomas Picket in 1539 at St. Michael Bassishaw, and Alyse Paice who married John Garrot on August 16th 1573 at the church of St. Lawrence Pountney, both London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John Pais, which was dated 1219, in the "Register of the Freemen of Leicester", during the reign of King Henry 111, known as "The Frenchman", 1216 - 1272. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.
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Both the Italian and the English surnames share the same Latin root: the Latin word for peace pax. Specifically, "pace" is the ablative declension of "pax" in Latin, which in Classical Latin would be pronounced "PAH-kah". The word sees popular usage in Ecclesiastical Latin, which today as in the Middle Ages pronounces it in the Italian manner. "Pace" remains the word for "peace" in Modern Italian.
The Italian Pace is believed to be patronymic, meaning that those with the surname Pace are the descendants of a man with a first name of Pace (from Latin Pax, Pacis). Early bearers of this surname would have been bestowed with it because of their calm or reputation as peacemakers, or to those who spread peace in a religious sense. The first references to the surname Pace occur in the 6th and 7th centuries in the forms of Pace, Pacius, Pacinus, and Pax.
Today the surname Pace is concentrated in various regions of Italy and is found all over Italy, especially in northern Piemonte and Lombardy, in central Latium and Abruzzo, and in southern Sicily, Calabria, Puglia, Basilicata. In certain places like Pratola Peligna in L'Aquila, Abruzzo, virtually everyone has a relative with the surname Pace and it can take up pages in the phonebook.
The Maltese line of the name comes thanks to the strong Italian influence on that nation. Especially important was the period after October 5, 1350, when Malta was incorporated directly under the Kingdom of Sicily, expanding the number of greatly in Malta. In Malta, the surname is sometimes pronounced as in Italian but other times an abridged form, "PAH-ch", is used.
The Dictionary of English Surnames[1] gives the origin of the English surname "Pace" as ME pais, OFr pais, Lat pax, "peace, concord, amity", and adds: "As ME pasches appears also as paisch, peice, peace, and Easter eggs are still called Pace eggs." Pace is ranked 2693 in frequency order by the GBNames Public Profiler[2] The area of greatest concentration is Wolverhampton.
The surname "Pacey", derives from the French village Pacy sur Eure (Pacy from Latin Pax, pacis). It is profiled separately from the surname "Pace", and is ranked 3578. Newbold Pacey, a village in Warwickshire, dates back to Domesday and according to the Victoria County History "took its name from "the family of Pascy, or Pacey".[3]
The two surnames have historically been sometimes confused. The surname of Richard Pace, the 16th-century churchman, is today pronounced as "Pace", but his biographer Jervis Wegg points out that his surname was actually two syllables[4].
There is a well known electronics company called Pace plc, based in Keighley, Yorkshire. The firm manufactures set-top boxes for satellite and cable services.
Pace as a name does not exist in Germany. German Pace lines are the result of changing a somewhat similar name to Pace after emigrating from Germany to English-speaking countries; the German name paß is the most likely culprit, although some claim to have found evidence suggesting that it was in fact Päez. It is interesting to note that the German verb paßen means to pace.