Spiteri is a Maltese and southern Italian surname. The name originated as a shortening of the Sicilian surname Spitaleri from Catania, which itself came from the Norman French word hospitalier, meaning a hostel keeper.[1] Similarly, it may also have been a shortening of the Greek Spiteris, from a derivative of the Latin word hospitarius, also meaning "hostel worker".[2][3] In Malta, Spiteri is highly associated with the knights of the Hospitaller Malta, with folk stories attributing the name to the illegitimate children of the knights.[4][5] As of 2005, Spiteri is the tenth most popular surname in Malta, making up 1.8% of the total population of the country.[6]
Notable people with the surname include:
- Amanda Spiteri Grech, Maltese politician
- Carm Lino Spiteri (1932–2008), Maltese architect and politician
- Charles Spiteri (1944–2025), Maltese footballer
- Curtis Spiteri (born 1981), American retired footballer
- Dalila Spiteri (born 1997), Italian tennis player
- Donat Spiteri (1922–2011), Maltese religious leader and author
- Emanuel Spiteri (1951/1952–1993), Maltese chef and murder victim
- Ernest Spiteri-Gonzi (born 1955), Maltese footballer
- Ioanna Spiteri (1920–2000), Greek Expressionist sculptor
- Jenise Spiteri (born 1992), Maltese-American snowboarder
- Jodie Spiteri, fictional character from the Australian television drama Wentworth
- Joe Spiteri (born 1973), Maltese-Australian footballer
- Joseph Spiteri (born 1959), Maltese prelate
- Joseph M. Spiteri (1934–2013), Maltese architect
- Kimberley Spiteri, American make-up artist
- Lino Spiteri (1938–2014), Maltese writer and politician
- Mary Spiteri (born 1947), Maltese cabaret artiste
- Michael Spiteri (born 1969), Maltese retired footballer
- Myriam Spiteri Debono (born 1952), Maltese politician
- Oliver Spiteri (born 1970), Maltese football manager and former player
- Renzo Spiteri, Maltese musician
- Sharleen Spiteri (born 1967), Scottish singer-songwriter; guitarist; lead vocalist of the pop-rock band Texas
- Sharleen Spiteri (died 2005), Australian sex worker
- Stephen C. Spiteri (born 1963), Maltese military historian
- Stephen Spiteri (Maltese politician)
- Suzanne Spiteri (born 1978), Maltese sprinter
- Vicente Spiteri (1917–2003), Spanish conductor
References
edit- ↑ Geoffrey Hull. "The Oldest Maltese Surnames: A Window on Sicily's Medieval History". In Karagoz, Claudia; Summerfield, Giovanna (eds.). Sicily and the Mediterranean Migration, Exchange, Reinvention. p. 93.
- ↑ Dictionary of American family names (Second ed.). Oxford University Press. 2022. ISBN 9780190245122.
- ↑ Hanks, Patrick; Coates, Richard; McClure, Peter (2016). The Oxford dictionary of family names in Britain and Ireland (First ed.). Oxford, United Kingdom ; New York, NY: Oxford University Press. p. 2513. ISBN 9780199677764.
- ↑ Cassar Pullicino, Joseph (October–December 1949). "The Order of St. John in Maltese folk-memory" (PDF). Scientia. 15 (4): 165. Archived from the original on 17 April 2016.
- ↑ Pullicino, Mark (2013). The Obama Tribe Explorer, James Martin's Biography. MPI Publishing. p. 74. ISBN 978-99957-0-584-8. OCLC 870266285.
- ↑ Cassar, Mario (2016). Maltese surnames : a historical perspective. Centro di Studi Filologici e Linguistici Siciliani. pp. 162–163.
This page lists people with the surname Spiteri.
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If an internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that link by adding the person's given name(s) to the link.