Evangelinos

Recorded in a munber of spellings including Di Evangelista, Evangelista (Italian), Evangelinos, Evangelisis, and Evangelou (Grecian), this is a surname of Greek origins. It originates from the ancient word 'evangelion' meaning good news, and hence was originally a personal or given name or possibly even a nickname, for a bearer of good news. It was also, outside of Greece, a Crusader name. That is to say a name which was brought back into Western Europe by returning knights and pilgrims to the Holy Land in the 11th and 12th centuries. These names were associated with the bible, and Greece being the Christian nation nearest to the action and the bridgehead from which the armies of the Crusades were launched against the Muslims in Palestine, was also used a source of names. Early examples of the surname recordings include Stefano Evangelista of Cassamassima, Bari, Italia, on June 19th 1620. In Greece itself records are erratic or non existent, however we have been able to find those of Nickolaos Evangelinos at Lavkos, Magnisias, on July 1st 1856, and Konstantinos Evangelou, a christening witness to his son Athanasios, also at Lavkos, on June 5th 1909.