Buonaparte

Buonaparte is the Italian surname originally borne by the Corsican Buonaparte family. The name is the Italian form of Bonaparte and was used in Corsican and Italian-language sources before being Frenchized in most official records as Bonaparte during and after the Napoleonic era. The family came from Corsica, an island with Genoese heritage that was incorporated into France in 1768. The name itself derives from Italian elements buon (good) and parte (part).

Napoleone di Buonaparte, born in 1769 in Ajaccio, is the best-known bearer. He became Emperor of the French after the French Revolution and dominated European affairs in the early 19th century. The surname of Napoléon and his siblings—Joseph, Lucien, Louis, Pauline, Caroline, and Jérôme—was most commonly rendered in French as Bonaparte, though some contemporaries and Italian-language references continued to use Buonaparte, or Carlo Buonaparte for the father. Carlo Buonaparte (1746–1783) served in Corsican administration and helped establish the family's status before Napoléon's rise.

Today, Buonaparte is primarily encountered in Italian-language scholarship and historical discussions of Corsican origins. The more widely known Bonaparte form is used in most English-language histories to refer to Napoléon and his immediate relatives.