Pasculli Riunione 2028

The Pasculli Name: An Easter Name from the Adriatic Coast

A name born at Easter

Pasculli comes from the first name Pasquale, which goes back to the Latin paschalis, "of Easter" (from Pascha). Surname researchers agree that names in this family were first given to a child born or baptized around Easter. Over generations, "Pasquale's people" became a family name that was passed down. [1][2][3]

The ending -ulli is the most distinctly Pugliese part of the name. It reads like a dialect diminutive or patronymic, roughly "little Pasquale" or "of Pasquale's family." Ancestry describes the ending as a diminutive or "descendant of" form. (Note: we haven't found a scholarly source that pins down the exact grammar of the ending, so treat this as likely rather than certain.) [2]

Decidedly Apulian

The Italian Heraldry Institute calls Pasculli "decidedly Apulian." It names Bari, Bitonto, Bisceglie, Andria, Molfetta, and Martina Franca (Taranto) as the places where the name is typical. [1] Molfetta has never been one of the town's most common surnames. Those are names like Minervini, De Gennaro, and De Candia. Pasculli is a smaller, distinctive local name. [1][5] The same source lists Pasculli among Italian families with noble (baronial) entries, including a "Pasculli De Angelis" line. (Uncertain: we haven't confirmed any link between that line and our Molfetta family.) [1]

Cousins of the name

The same Easter root gave Italy a whole family of surnames, each tied to its own region: [1][2][3]

(Pascolo looks similar but probably comes from pascolo*, "pasture," not from Easter. It's unconfirmed and likely unrelated.)*

Molfetta: a town of the sea

Coat of arms of the town of Molfetta
Coat of arms of Molfetta, our ancestral town
Stemma di Molfetta via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Molfetta is a port on the Adriatic, just north of Bari, with a long history of fishing and seafaring. Its beloved patroness is the Madonna dei Martiri, Our Lady of the Martyrs. According to tradition, in 1188 Crusaders sailing home from the Holy Land found her Byzantine icon floating on the water and brought it to the town's hospice for wounded pilgrims. Fishermen have prayed to her for protection ever since. She became the town's official patron, alongside San Corrado, in 1840, and her feast falls on September 8. [6][7]

From Molfetta to Hoboken

Hoboken grew quickly from the 1880s, with new factories and steamship docks. By about 1900, its downtown blocks had become a largely Italian neighborhood. Historian Christina Ziegler-McPherson (Immigrants in Hoboken) notes that many of the city's Italians came from Puglia and Molise, but the largest number came from Molfetta, and the Molfettesi shaped Hoboken's Italian-American culture more than any other group. [6]

The Molfettesi brought their Madonna with them. In 1927, Molfetta immigrants founded and incorporated the Society Madonna dei Martiri in Hoboken. In 1950 the Society bought its home at 332 Adams Street. Its yearly feast, now the Hoboken Italian Festival, still carries the Madonna through the streets and to the Hudson River for a blessing of the fleet, an echo of the fishing boats back home. [6][7][8]

One Pasculli family story, told by director Thom Pasculli, traces his line to great-grandfather Pasquale Pasculli of Molfetta. He settled the family in Hoboken, needed permission from Fascist-era officials to emigrate, and took a job setting pins at a local bowling alley to get started. [9] (We haven't confirmed how his branch connects to ours.) In 1920 the US census recorded only a handful of Pasculli households, all in New York State according to Ancestry's summary. That suggests most New Jersey Pascullis arrived or settled later. [2]

A Hoboken mayor

Patrick L. Pasculli (1947–2026) grew up on Hoboken's waterfront, where his father worked as a longshoreman. He taught in Hoboken's public schools for more than 40 years. He became mayor in March 1988 after Mayor Tom Vezzetti died, won elections in 1988 and 1989, and served as Hoboken's 34th mayor until 1993. He's remembered for keeping local control of the waterfront and for championing Hoboken as the birthplace of organized baseball. He died March 6, 2026. [10][11][12] (Wikipedia gives his birthplace as St. Louis, while his obituary says he was born in Hoboken. A different Patrick C. Pasculli, a Bayonne funeral director and state assemblyman from 1978 to 1980, was not related.) [10][11]

Trace your own branch

Have a story, document, or photo? Add it to the family tree page so we can keep building this history together.

Sources

  1. Istituto Araldico, "Pasculli": https://www.heraldrysinstitute.com/lang/en/ricerca/search/Pasculli/
  2. Ancestry, Pasculli surname meaning: https://www.ancestry.com/last-name-meaning/pasculli
  3. Wisdomlib, Significato del nome Pasculli: https://www.wisdomlib.org/it/names/pasculli
  4. Antenati Italiani (community site), Molfetta: https://www.antenati-italiani.org/en/towns/72029-molfetta
  5. Ciao Genealogy, Molfetta: https://ciaogenealogy.com/town/molfetta/
  6. NJ DEP, Rebuild by Design Hudson River, Cultural Resources study (cites Ziegler-McPherson): https://dep.nj.gov/wp-content/uploads/floodresilience/attachment-5-cultural-resources-technical-environmental-study-vol-2b-rbd-hr-feis.pdf
  7. Hoboken Italian Festival, History: https://www.hobokenitalianfestival.com/blog/history-of-our-festival
  8. The Society from the Beginning: https://www.ilovemolfetta.it/hokokenitalianfestival/content_/the-society.asp?lan=eng
  9. Fra Noi, "Cutting-edge director Thom Pasculli": https://franoi.com/profiles/cutting-edge-director-thom-pasculli/
  10. New Jersey Globe obituary: https://newjerseyglobe.com/in-memoriam/158739/
  11. Wikipedia, Patrick Pasculli: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Pasculli
  12. Failla-McKnight obituary: https://faillamcknight.com/patrick-pasculli/
  13. Portale Antenati: https://antenati.cultura.gov.it

Add your branch to the Family Tree