CASHA

An old Maltese surname, one of the earliest recordings of it mentions an Anxonus Casha, of Birgu, in 1399.

Almost certainly of Semitic origin, the most likely source being the Arabic nickname qasha, meaning “tough, ruthless”. Qas’a, also Arabic, refers to a wooden bowl used to sort fish, perhaps denoting a fishmonger.

Three stars, referring to the holy trinity, are very common motifs in Maltese heraldry. However, they are usually depicted as the traditional six-pointed ‘mullets’, not the far more modern five-pointed variants.