A small island like Malta, having been conquered by so many different nationalities, is bound to have different surnames from various countries, leading to new surnames popping up in society. A recent post on the Facebook group Nostalgia Malta shows the ranking of the first 120 surnames to pop up in Malta.
Tony Buttigieg via Nostalgia Malta / Facebook
Borg is at the top of leader board (obvs), with Vella, Farrugia, Camilleri and Zammit ranking in the top five local surnames. Ranking from six to 10 are surnames Grech, Galea, Caruana, Agius, and Cassar.
Some surnames are listed as the old Semitic or Romantic versions of the words like Xiberras (Sciberras), Xicluna (Scicluna), Soltana (Sultana), Abejer (Ebejer), showing the influence of other languages on our local tongue, and how it's changed over the years. Other quite common surnames include Attard, Micallef , Mifsud, Spiteri, and Pace.
Surnames such as Gatt, Calleja, Mallia, Mizzi, Busuttil, Falzon, Xerri, Cauchi, Zahra and Ellul are all featured in the top 50, while other less common ones such as Cumbo, Parnis, Teuma, Xiriha, Stivala, Ciappara, Fiteni, Cini, Galdes, and Gristi rank towards the end of the list.
Is your surname ranked in the list? Let us know!