Liberto is both a given name and a surname of Italian origin.
Etymology
The term liberto derives from , which means a freed slave. In ancient Greece, those freed slaves had various kinds of obligations toward their former owners and they did not have full citizens rights.
In ancient Rome they were called , a freedman (feminine: liberta) or an emancipated person who acts for and on behalf of its former master, who became his patron (). During the Empire period and after the judgment of a magistrate they were freed from a . Despite being freed by manumission and acquiring the Roman citizenship and a legal personality, they did not have the same legal rights of the free-born and were excluded from the main offices, maintaining a subordinate position and many obligations on behalf of their former masters, which can be summarized in three duties: (obedience; respecting the patron as a father), (work), and (honesty; masters maintain the right of inheritance). This status could be revoked by . During the late imperial period a liberto can achieve the full status of naive by .
However, the name Liberto has also been traced to an unrelated Germanic given name.