Antica famiglia originaria di Massalubrense, che pare essersi estinta negli Esperti. Francesco-Saverio Caggiano, fu regio prefetto della portolania delle Puglie nel 1774.
Essa risulta essere una delle più chiare famiglie,” che con peregrine grandezze hanno tramandato a posteri glorioso il nome della Napoletana nobiltà” così come s può leggere nei volumi de’ “La Nobiltà Napoletana”, stampato in Napoli presso il commendatore de’ Angelis e figlio nel 1888. Risulta, dunque, indubbio che questa famiglia, sia venerabile non meno per la sue origine che risalgono fino all’imperio di Basilio il Magno, che celebre per gli egregi fatti che riguardano i suoi prodi Cavalieri, che con gesta magnanime hanno avuto il dominio di molte città, terre, e castelli. In più, i membri dell’illustre famiglia Caggiano, legando parentele con le più rinomate e famose case del medesimo nostro Regno,oltre ad essere ammessi dal senato veneto alla nobiltà della sua Repubblica, hanno reso grandissimi onori a questa famiglia.
Nel corso dei secoli i membri di codesta illustre famiglia, si sono trasferiti in molte regioni d’Italia, ed anche all’estero.
Nel più recente passato, ad esempio, è nostro dovere menzionare Antonio Caggiano (Coronda, 30 gennaio 1889 – 23 ottobre 1979), cardinale argentino della Chiesa cattolica, nominato da papa Pio XII.

. Riguardo a questo cognome abbiamo ritrovato ulteriori informazioni storiche in altri archivi. Purtroppo in lingua originale Inglese. : This Italian Last Name of CAGGIANO was an occupational name for a maker of footwear and leggings primarily rendered in the Latin form caliga meaning military boot. The name has many variant spellings including CALEGARI, CALIGARO, CALLIGHER, CALLEGHER, GALLIGARI and CALLEGARIS. Many of the modern family names throughout Europe reflect the profession or occupation of their forbears in the Middle Ages and derive from the position held by their ancestors in the village, noble household or religious community in which they lived and worked. The addition of their profession to their birth name made it easier to identify individual tradesmen and craftsmen. As generations passed and families moved around, so the original identifying names developed into the corrupted but simpler versions that we recognise today. Over the centuries, most people in Europe have accepted their Last Name as a fact of life, as irrevocable as an act of God. However much the individual may have liked or disliked the Last Name, they were stuck with it, and people infrequently modified them by personal choice. A more common form of variation was in fact involuntary, when an official change was made, in other words, a clerical error. Among the humbler classes of European society, and euniquely among illiterate people, individuals were willing to accept the mistakes of officials, clerks and priests as officially bestowing a new version of their Last Name, just as they had meekly accepted the Last Name they had been born with. In North America, the linguistic problems confronting immigration officials at Ellis Island in the 19th century were legendary as a prolific source of Anglicization. As the agricultural depression of southern Italy worsened towards the end of the 19th century, people started to escape to the New World. The exodus started in earnest in 1887 with Brazil and other parts of Latin America being the original destinations. By 1893, the economy had improved in the United States and people headed there from Italy in greater and greater numbers. In 1898 there were more Italian immigrants to the USA than from any other state. In the post war era, more than a quarter of Italians left the state for a new life. They joined a flood of immigrants to America which was averaging a million a year in the pre war years….
Noble title: Nobili
Coat of arms: Un leone addestrato da un sole…