Family name origins & meanings
- Italian and Spanish (Príncipe) : from principe ‘prince’, ‘heir’ (Latin princeps, genitive principis, from prīmus ‘first’ + capere ‘to take’), applied probably as a nickname for someone who gave himself airs and graces or for someone in the service of a prince.
- Italian : from an old personal name of the same derivation and meaning as 1 above.