Italian name

A name in Italian consists of a given name ("nome") and a surname ("cognome"). Surnames are normally written after given names. Occasionally in official documents, the surname may be written before given names. In speech, the use of given name before family name is standard.

Italian names are not entirely equivalent to ancient Latin ones, for instance, the Italian "nome" is not analogous to the ancient Roman "nomen", since the former is the given name (distinct between siblings) while the latter the family name (inherited, thus shared by all siblings).

Given names

Many Italian male given names end in "-o" but can also end in "-e" (for example "Achille", "Aimone", "Alceste", "Alcide", "Amilcare", "Amintore", "Annibale", "Aristotele", "Astorre", "Baldassare", "Beppe", "Carmine", "Cesare", "Clemente", "Daniele", "Dante", "Davide", "Emanuele", "Ercole", "Ettore", "Felice", "Gabriele", "Gaspare", "Gastone", "Gentile", "Giosuè", "Giuseppe", "Leone", "Melchiorre", "Michele", "Oddone", "Ottone", "Pasquale", "Raffaele", "Salomone", "Salvatore", "Samuele", "Scipione", "Simone", "Ulisse", "Vitale", "Vittore"), in "-i" (for example "Dionigi", "Gianni", "Giovanni", "Luigi", "Nanni", "Neri", "Ranieri") and in "-a" (for example "Andrea", which in Italian is a male name, "Battista", "Elia", "Enea", "Evangelista", "Luca", "Mattia" or "Nicola"). Some names, usually of foreign origin, end with a consonant, such as "Christian", "Igor", "Ivan", "Loris", "Oscar", "Walter"/"Valter".

Female names end in "-a" but can also end in "-e", as is the case with "Adelaide", "Adele", "Agnese", "Alice", "Beatrice", "Berenice", "Clarice", "Cloe", "Geltrude", "Irene", "Matilde", "Rachele", and "Zoe" for example, in "-i" (for example "Noemi"), or even with a consonant (e.g. "Nives", "Ester").

A few names end with an accented vowel, for instance Niccolò and Giosuè.

Almost every base name can have a diminutive form ending with -ino/-ina or -etto/etta as in Paolino/Paoletto and Paolina/Paoletta from Paolo and Paola, -ello/-ella, as in Donatello/Donatella from Donato and Donata, or -uccio/-uccia, as in Guiduccio from Guido. The forms -uzzo/-uzza, as in Santuzza from Santa, are typical of Sicilian dialect.

The most common names are [http://www.paginebianche.it/execute.cgi?ts=8&cb=&tl=2 Paginebianche.it | Facciamo Nomi e Cognomi ] ] :
* For males: Marco, Andrea, Matteo, Francesco, Alessandro, Michele.
* For females: Maria, Anna, Chiara, Giulia, Laura.

Since the ancient Romans had a very limited stock of given names ("praenomina"), very few modern Italian given names ("nomi") are derived directly from the classical ones. A rare example would be "Marco" (from Marcus). Some "nomi" were taken from classical clan names ("nomina") — for their meanings or because they are euphonic, not necessarily because the nameholder is the descendant of the clan, such as Emilio/Emilia (from Aemilius), Valerio/Valeria (from Valerius), Claudio/Claudia (from Claudius), Orazio (from Horatius), and Fabiano (from the "cognomen" Fabianus), Flavio/Flavia from (flavus).

urnames

Italy has the largest collection of surnames ("cognomi") in the world, with over 350,000."Il Corriere della Sera" (Sept 15, 2006), [http://www.corriere.it/Primo_Piano/Cronache/2006/09_Settembre/15/cognomi.shtml L'Italia è il regno dei cognomi] & [http://www.corriere.it/Primo_Piano/Cronache/2006/09_Settembre/15/pop_nomi2.shtml La provenienza geografica dei cognomi] ] [ [http://www.beginningwithi.com/italy/living/surnames.htm Italian Surnames -The Funny, Surprising, and Just Plain Weird ] ] Men – except slaves – in ancient Rome always had hereditary surnames, i.e., "nomen" (clan name) and "cognomen" (side-clan name). However, the multi-name tradition was lost by the Middle Age and wasn't until the 1564 Council of Trento that registration of surnames mandatory in parishes.

uffixes

A large number of Italian surnames end in "i". This is the result of the medieval Italian habit of identifying families by the name of their ancestors in the plural (which have an "-i" suffix in Italian). For instance, Filippo from the Ormanno family ("gli Ormanni") would be called "messer Filippo degli Ormanni" ("Mr. Filippo of the Ormannos"). In time, the middle possessive portion was dropped but surnames became permanently pluralized and never referred to in the singular, even for a single person, hence Filippo Ormanno would be known as Filippo Ormanni.Hall, Robert A. (1941), "Definite Article + Family Name in Italian". "Language" 17 (1): 33-39] Some families, however, opted to retain the possessive portion of their surnames, for instance Lorenzo de' Medici literally means "Lorenzo of the Medici" (de' is a contraction of "dei", also meaning "of the").

Some common suffixes indicate endearment (which may also become pluralized and receive an "-i" ending), for example:
* "-ello/illo/etto/ino" (diminutive "little"), e.g., Bernardino, Bernardello
* "-one" (augmentative "big"), e.g., Mangione
* "-accio/azzo/asso" (pejorative [http://www.edres.it/gdli2.html] ), e.g., Boccaccio

Other endings are characteristic of certain regions:
*Veneto: "-asso" and consonants ("l", "n", "r"): Bissacco, Brombal and Benetton
*Sicily: "-alaro" and "-isi": Favaloro, Puglisi
*Lombardy: "-ago/ghi" and "-ate/ati": Salmoiraghi, Bonati
*Friuli: "-otti/utti" and "-t": Bortolotti, Rigonat
*Tuscany: "-ai" and "-aci/ecci/ucci": Bollai, Balducci
*Sardinia: "-u" and "-as": Schirru, Marras
*Piedmont: "-ero", "-audi", "-asco","-zzi": Ferrero, Rambaudi, Comaco, Bonazzi
*Calabria: "-ace": Storace

Origins

Like most other European surnames, patronymics are common. Originally they were indicated by a possessive, e.g., Francesco de Bernardo, meaning "Francis (the son) of Bernard". "De Luca" (" [son] of Luke") remains one of the most common Italian surnames. However, "de" ("of") was often dropped and suffixes added, hence "de Bernardo" evolved to be "Bernardo" and eventually pluralized as "Bernardi" (see Suffixes above). Sometimes the names of two ancestors could merge into one, "Colaianni" is a fusion of "Nicola" and "Giovanni"Italy World Club, [http://www.italyworldclub.com/genealogy/surnames/ Italian Surnames: Etymology and Origin] ] .

The origin residence of the family gave rise to many surnames, e.g.,
* habitat: "Della Valle" ("of a valley"), "Montagna" ("mountain"), "Burroni" ("ravines")
* specific placename: "Romano" ("Roman"), "Puglisi"/"Pugliese" ("Apulian"), "Greco" ("Greek"), "da Vinci" ("from Vinci")
* nearby landmarks: "La Porta" ("the gate"), "Fontana" ("fountain"), "Torregrossa" ("big tower"), "D'Arco" ("of the arch")

Ancestors' occupation was also a great source of surnames.
* Job title: "Contadino" ("farmer"), "Tagliabue" ("ox-cutter"), "Passagero" ("toll-collector")
* Objects (metonyms) associated with the vocation: "Zappa" ("hoe", farmer), "Delle Fave" ("of the beans", grocer), "Martelli" ("hammer", carpenter), "Tenaglia" ("pincer", smith), "Farina" ("flour", baker), "Forni" ("ovens", cook), "Marin" ("sea", fisherman)

Nicknames, referring to physical attributes or mannerism, also gave rise to some family names, e.g., "Rossi" (from "rosso" "redhead"), "Basso" ("short"), "Caporaso" ("shaved head"), "Pappalardo" ("lard-eater"), and "Barbagelata" ("frozen beard").

Few family names are still in the original Latin, and usually they indicate from or with pretensions to antiquity, e.g. "Santorum" or "de Laurentiis". Despite notions of this indicating nobility, it actually reflects that the family name has been preserved from Medieval Latin sources as a part of their business or household documentation or church records.

Articles

Beginning in the Renaissance, when referring to others by their surnames alone, Italians used a definite article as well (in the singular, "il" for most parts, and l' before vowels). Mario Russo, therefore, would be called "il Russo" ("the Russo"), especially in the literary circles and in writing. Given names usually were not preceded by an article. "Il Mario Russo" was considered by learned Italians to be erroneous, while "il Russo Mario" correct. However, in northern Italy, given names–especially female's–were preceded by articles ("la Maria", "la Gianna").Meyer-Lübke. "Grammaire des langues romanes" 3 §150]

Names that are derived from possessions of noble families normally never had articles preceding them, e.g., "Farnese" (from a territorial holding) and "Cornaro" (from a bishopric). Articles were omitted for those surnames with an identifiable foreign origin (including Latin ones), e.g., "Cicerone".

This practice somewhat resembles the Greek custom of placing definite articles before "all" names (see Greek names). This Greco-Italian practice even spread to French in the 17th century, especially in writings regarding figures in the fields of literature and painting, e.g., "le Poussin".

The practice using articles before surnames was less common in ordinary conversation and middle-class speech. After the 19th century (Napoleonic era), the custom started to dwindle in all contexts and has basically died out by the 1900, except in the most formal documents (e.g., legal proceedings), and some fixed locutions ("il Petrarca" and less so "il Boccaccio").

References

ee also

*Family name#Italy
*List of most common surnames#Italy

External links

* [http://www.italianames.com List of Female and Male Italian Names]
* [http://www.beginningwithi.com/italy/living/surnames.htm Italian Surnames: The Funny, Surprising, and Just Plain Weird]
* [http://gens.labo.net/it/cognomi La mappa dei cognomi] : Enter an Italian surname to see its distribution