Family name origins & meanings
- Italian : of uncertain derivation; possibly from peccio, peccia, which can have the meaning of ‘paunch’ (hence a nickname for a large-bellied man), or ‘chicken’, ‘hen’ (either a nickname for someone thought to resemble a chicken or a metonymic occupational name for a poultry keeper), or ‘woodpecker’ (applied as a nickname for someone considered to be a sneak, meddler, or a parasite, all apparently characteristics associated with the bird), but more likely a habitational name from a place named Peccia or similar for the presence of spruce trees (Latin picea).