The surname Baldacchino has been spelled in many ways throughout the centuries, unsurprising given the length of the name and its presence in countries with different languages. The surname appears in many forms in the early registers of Malta and Sicily when spellings depended on whoever was keeping the church registers, especially Baldacchino but also Baldachino, Baldachin, Baldakin, even an abbreviated form Baldagno or Baldaqno likely influenced by the Spanish word baldaquino. The spelling Baldacchino was always the prevalent form of the name in both Sicily and Malta and the other forms above did not develop into variant names, passed from generation to generation, in these countries. Note that ‘ino’ is a typical ending for Sicilian surnames.
It lies about 60 miles south of Sicily off the tip of southern Italy (Google Earth)
However, one variant name Ballacchino has been identified in two places in Sicily, Licata and Raffadali. In Licata, where the surname first appears in the church registers in 1642, early name spellings were mainly Ballacchino, Ballachino, Baldacchino and Baldachino. By the early 1700s, Ballacchino became the dominant spelling in the registers and almost no other spelling was found until the telephone directory of 2003 where 4 of the 150 entries are spelled Baldacchino rather than Ballacchino. It seems likely that a few Baldacchinos from other parts of Sicily had moved to Licata by this late date. The surname Ballacchino made a later but strong appearance in Raffadali as well, first seen in the registers in 1822. Even with this later appearance, Ballacchinos (and close spellings) accounted for almost 20% of Raffadali baptism records in the town’s registers available from 1592 to 1900. However, there is little evidence of the name in present-day Raffadali. This variant has now spread to other countries, especially the United States where it is most frequently seen as Ballachino with one ‘c’.
The Baldachino spelling of the surname, a transient spelling or misspelling of the name in Malta and Sicily, did become a variant name and is now the dominant form of the surname in Gibraltar. Several contractors arrived in Gibraltar from Malta in the latter 1800s to work at the dockyards and remained in Gibraltar thereafter. A local story is that the British soldier registering one of these contractors misspelled his name as Baldachino, dropping the double ‘c’ that the contractor was born with. While the double ‘c’ can still be found in some signatures on documents, the Baldachino version of the name almost immediately became the way it was spelled in Gibraltar’s church records and today, rarely any other spelling of the name can be found. The spelling in the English records of Gibraltar was likely influenced by the word baldachin, the English form of the Italian word baldacchino.
Another variant name, Baldaquin, appeared in Algeria in the 1800s amongst many Baldacchinos in the French colony of Algeria at that time. The Baldacchinos in Algeria had migrated there from Malta beginning in the early 1800s. Baldaquin is a French spelling of the Italian word baldacchino. The Baldaquin surname made its way to France along with the exodus of Maltese and other Europeans as wars of independence took hold in North Africa in the 20th century and forebears.io estimates that there are 44 Baldaquins in France today.
The Baldoquin surname is most prevalent in Cuba and has since spread to the United States. There is also a significant line of Baldoquins in the Phillipines. The origins of each of these lines has not yet been established however a Baldoquin from Cuba and Florida recently matched exactly with Mark’s Big-Y 700 DNA haplogroup, Mark’s ancestors being from Malta, which raises the possibility that the Baldoquins may relate to the Baldaquin line of France who descended from the Maltese.
We believe that the newest variant of Baldacchino is Baldacckino. This surname appeared in the Manchester, England area in the 20th century and has now passed through at least three generations. Joseph, the patriarch of this line, had been born in Malta as a Baldacchino in 1922 and was buried in Manchester in 1980 as a Baldacckino.
There is another Italian surname, Baldacchini, that appears to be unrelated to the Baldacchino surname. The Baldacchini surname is mainly concentrated in central Italy near Rome and is not part of this study.