With regard to the article ‘Why most Maltese share the same 100 surnames’ (The Sunday Times of Malta, February 9), I was rather surprised that the meaning of the surname Falzon was listed as “deceitful” when in actual fact it is quite obviously an occupational name, just as much as Smith is.

Falzon refers to someone who made, or worked, with scythes or sickles. In modern Italian a ‘falce’ is a scythe. There are also several variants of Veneto in which a large scythe is referred to as a ‘falzon’, while in Catalan a sickle is also called a ‘falç’ and, again, the augmentative can be used.

In an unrelated observation, many people who carry the surname Azzopardi will be interested to know that they are the descendants of the Sephardite Jews of Spain.