Palamedi, almost disappeared, would seem to be from the Parma area, Palamides is a typical surname of Faleria, Civita Castellana and Calcata in the Viterbo area, and of Rome, Palamitessa, almost disappeared, is from the Bari area, Palmitessa is widespread in Barletta and Monopoli in particular, in Bari Palmitesta has an Abruzzese lineage in Francavilla al Mare and Ortona in the Theatine area, and an Apulian one in the Taranto area at Massafra, Taranto and Ginosa, all these surnames should derive, also through dialectal modifications or euphonetic alterations, from the Greek name Palamedes, Palamede is a character of Greek mythology, son of Nauplius and Climene. King of the island of Eubea, an expert in the art of war and a brave warrior, this name was also used in the Chansons De Geste, in the Arthurian cycle to indicate a noble and valiant Saracen knight, son of King Esclabor and sworn enemy of Tristan. additions provided by Stefano Ferrazzi Palmitesta: it seems likely that this is a variant of the surname Palmitessa, very common in the area of Bari: the Palmitesta variant, in my opinion, would be born from a paretimological juxtaposition between the suffix -tessa and the term 'head ', as sometimes happens in popular surnames. Now, however, Palmitessa himself is a surname that is difficult to interpret, above all because it is a very local surname. Risking a hypothesis, one comes to think of the surname Palamidessi (with a variant in Palamides), which, most probably, derives from the Greek name Palamedes or Palamides, belonging to Greek mythology; in medieval times, moreover, the name Palamede was taken up in the stories of the Round Table, in which Palamede was a Saracen warrior who later converted to Christianity. In my opinion, therefore, the surnames Palmitesta, Palmitessa, Palamidessi, Palamides and Palamedi all derive from the Greek name Palamedes, popularized by Greek mythology or the Arthurian cycle (a bit like what happened with the surnames Ulisse, Enea, Lancellotto, Perciavalle, etc): from what I have noticed, many of these names were adapted to the popular pronunciation - for example, from the French Perceval to the Italian Perciavalle / Percivalle / Percivaldo or, again, from the French Lancelot to the Italian Lancillotto / Lancellotto / Lanzellotto / Lanzarotto - for this reason I think that Palmitessa and Palmitesta suffer from a popular adaptation.
Specific to Barletta and Monopoli in the Bari area.
Buy a heraldic document with your coat of arms
You may be interested
Verba Volant, Scripta Manent