Family name origins & meanings
- Italian : from sorbo ‘sorb apple’, the fruit of the true service tree, Sorbus domestica, edible when very ripe; hence an occupational name for a grower or seller of these fruits, a topographic name for someone who lived where service trees grew, or a habitational name from a place named with this word, such as Sorbo Serpico (Avellino) or Sobro San Basile (Catazaro).
- Norwegian (Sørbø) : habitational name from any of ten or more farms, mostly in southwestern Norway, named in Old Norse as Saurbœ´r, from saurr ‘mire’, ‘mud’ + bœ´r ‘farm’, ‘settlement’.