User-submitted Reference

It comes from the Latin word agellum, 'small farm, campicello' and also from toponyms like Aielli (Aq), Aiello Calabro (Cs), Aiello del Friuli (Ud), Aiello del Sabato (Av) and many others. Very probably the first ones who brought this surname in the Middle Ages were small landowners.

There are traces of this cognomization since the twelfth century: Matteo d'Ajello was in the second half of 1100 notable at the service of the Norman sovereigns. A prominent figure of the second half of the 1500s was the painter Antonio Ajello, native of Rivello (Pz). Also remember Massimo D'Azeglio of the feudal family of Tapparelli, well-known writer and politician of the Italian Risorgimento.

The surname Aiello is typical of Southern Italy, very widespread especially in Campania, Sicily and Calabria.

Aielli, probably originally from the province of Pescara, has a stock in the Roman and Latin regions as well.

Ajello, more rare, has a Roman stock, one in the Neapolitan and one in the Messina area. D'Ajello, very rare, is Neapolitan.

D'Aiello is, in addition to the Neapolitan, also and above all of Caserta, with a strain also in Palermo.

Daielli, Ajelli and Dajelli, particularly rare, should be relatively recent and are probably the result of incorrect transcripts in the registers of northern Italy.

Azeglio and D'Azeglio, very rare, are Piedmontese.

Zelli is present in Tuscany, Lombardy and the Po Valley.