| Meaning | "Apples" — Italian mele is the plural of mela (apple); from Latin malum (apple); a topographic or occupational surname associated with apple cultivation or an apple orchard |
| Origin type | Topographic or occupational surname — indicating a family that lived near an apple orchard, cultivated apples, or sold apple products |
| Language origin | Italian, from Latin malum; the same root gives English "malic acid" (the acid in apples) and the place name Mela |
| Regional concentration | Campania (especially Caserta and Naples provinces); Puglia; also present in Sardinia where mela-related names are common; found across the Mezzogiorno |
| Estimated frequency | Moderately common across southern Italy; present in Italian-American communities, particularly in New York and New Jersey |
| Variants | Mela, Meli, Mellone, Melone, Melaranci (orange apple), De Mele, Di Mele |
Mele — the plural form of Italian mela, apple — derives from the Latin malum, which was the standard Latin word for the apple (and for fruit in general, giving rise to the botanical family name Malus). The apple has deep roots in Mediterranean culture: it appears in Roman mythology (the golden apple of discord that triggered the Trojan War), in the Roman agricultural tradition (the orchards of Latium were celebrated by Virgil and other Latin poets), and in the everyday landscape of the Italian countryside, where apple orchards were a normal feature of the Campanian, Apulian, and Sardinian agricultural landscape.
As a surname, Mele could indicate a family that cultivated apples — perhaps farming an orchard that was the defining feature of their landholding — or a person who lived in a place identified by its apple trees, or a seller of apples in a market. The plural form Mele (rather than the singular Mela) is typical of Campanian usage, where the -e plural ending appears in many noun-derived surnames. The suffix -one in Mellone (large apple) and Melone (which has crossed into melon territory linguistically) reflects the Italian pattern of augmentation that Italian surnames frequently display.
The surname Mele is most densely concentrated in Campania — particularly in the Caserta province to the north of Naples and in the interior Campanian hinterland — and in Puglia, where the sun-drenched plains and well-irrigated orchards of the Tavoliere produced fruit of high quality for the markets of Naples and Rome. The Campanian apple-growing tradition was concentrated in the higher elevations of the Apennines — the Matese mountains, the Alburni range, and the Cilento interior — where the cooler temperatures allowed the cultivation of apple varieties that could not survive in the coastal heat.
The surname appears in Campanian notarial and ecclesiastical records from the 15th century, initially in market town records where apple merchants and orchard farmers are documented by trade. By the time of the Bourbon census records of the 18th and early 19th centuries, Mele was established as a hereditary family name in the communities of the Caserta hinterland and the Neapolitan exurban zone.
Mele families emigrated to the United States primarily in the period 1880–1920, part of the great Campanian and Pugliese emigration that transformed American urban communities. New York and New Jersey received the largest concentrations of southern Italian families of all surnames during this period, and Mele appears in the immigrant community records — naturalization files, church baptismal registers, mutual aid society membership lists — of both states from the 1890s onward.
The agricultural background of many Mele families shaped their American occupations: Italian immigrants with farming skills often found work in market gardening around New York and New Jersey, in the truck farming communities of Connecticut and Long Island, and in the California agricultural sector. The Italian-American contribution to American fruit and vegetable cultivation — from the Sicilian families who dominated the New Orleans French Market to the Ligurian and Campanian families who shaped California farming — represents a continuous thread from old-world agricultural identity to new-world economic participation.
For Mele families, Campania (especially Caserta and Avellino provinces) and Puglia (Foggia and Bari provinces) are the primary research territories. The Portale Antenati provides free access to civil registration records from 1866. Ellis Island passenger manifests will identify the specific Italian comune of last residence. FamilySearch holds microfilm of many Campanian and Pugliese parish registers.
In US records, Mele is generally stable in spelling, which simplifies research considerably. The related form Meli (a Sicilian variant) should also be searched if family tradition indicates Sicilian origins. The World War I Selective Service registration records and New York State census records of 1905 and 1915 are valuable for confirming Italian birthplace and establishing the specific comune of origin.
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