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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • Southern Italian (Sicilian) : nickname from Arabic maghāwīr (plural) ‘aggressive’, ‘bold’. The nickname was bestowed originally on a troop of Aragonese soldiers sent as a garrison from Aragon following the Sicilian Vespers uprising in 1282, which expunged Angevin rule and paved the way for Aragonese rule.

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