Family name origins & meanings
- Italian (southern Calabria and Sicily) : from priòlu, priùli, southern Italian derivatives of Greek priolos ‘prior’, also ‘lay authority’. The Greek word in turn is derived from Latin prior. This was a nickname for someone thought to resemble a prior or an occupational name for a servant of a prior or some important lay personage.
- Italian : habitational name from Priolo in Siracusa province, Sicily.
- Altered spelling of French Prioleau.