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[Surname] COURIC and GARAGIORA's origin and meaning
I’m looking for the meaning of surname
COURIC and GARAGIORA's meaning.I was found these two surnames
for names of former anchors of ‘Today’ on NBC.​
first, COURIC is surname of ‘Katie Couric(1957~)’
and I found her paternal ancestry was​a French orphan who immigrated to the U.S.,
So I guess it’s origin is French; but not sure.
and Garagiora is surname of Joe Garagiola Sr.(1926~2016).
and I found he grew up in an Italian-American neighborhood,so I think It feels like Italian..... but it isn't even sure,
so I need your help to get a real information of these surnames.​Does anyone know these two surname's
real origin and meaning?
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Replies

Couric is derived from Middle Breton corr (now korr) 'dwarf, midget' so it's probably equivalent to the nickname Shorty. You can situate it at tinyurl.com/yaplex2v. I don't know the meaning of Garagiola.
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Just a thought -
I wonder if Garagiola might derive from a regional pronunciation of the surname Caracciolo? I've seen two explanations of this latter name:
1. That it is from a forename base on the word Caro, 'dear'.
2. That it is from a word meaning 'snail', and possibly a nickname for a slow moving person.
The distribution of the surname Garagiola is limited to Northern Italy, particularly the Milan district.
http://www.gens.info/italia/it/turismo-viaggi-e-tradizioni-italia?cognome=Garagiola&x=25&y=15#.WlY9lcsV_OE
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Garagiola and Caracciolo are not the same surname, because the stress is different: Garagiòla and Caràcciolo. Caracciolo is from Southern Italy, Garagiola is from Lombardy exactly from the area South and West of Milan. There's a place called Cascina (old big rural rural bulding) Garagiola near the town of Inveruno, dating back to XIV century and still open as a restaurant and farm. The name of this place may be celtic, like most of the places in Northern Italy.
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In my experience North Italian words and names (Gallo-Italic or the Gallo-Italic versions of Germanic names) with "G" are altered in spelling and pronunciation to "C" outside Gallic Italy (the former Cisalpine Gaul). Thus Daghipert becomes Tachipert etc.. As far as I know it doesn't happen the other way around, as North Itatians have no problem with the southern Italian c or ch, so Caracciolo would have to be a southern form of Garagiola, ruling out an origin from "Caro".
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Thanks.
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