La spina Family History

Italian (southern): from spina ‘thorn’ (from Latin spina) with the definite article la applied as a topographic name for someone who lived by a thorn bush or in an area of scrubland or (in a transferred sense) for someone who lived by the crest or ridge of a hill.

It could also be a nickname for a tall thin spiky person.

From a short form of a personal name formed with this word for its Christian associations, for example Fiordespina, Despina, Malaspina.