Maria Gianferrari: Hello. My name is Maria Gianferrari. People look at my last name and panic because it's so long, but it's really not that hard to say. Take the first four letters, G-I-A-N, and pronounce them with the first name John. The last part of my name is pronounced like the race car, Ferrari. Put them together and you get Gianferrari. Gianferrari is Italian in origin and a popular surname in the region of Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy, where my paternal relatives live. Want to hear my name with an Italian accent? Maria Gianferrari. My last name means John of the Ferrari's. Ferrari is an occupational surname. Ferraro comes from the Italian meaning blacksmith, and from the Latin meaning iron, like the chemical symbol FE. The last name Ferrari in Italian is like Smith in English.