Italian name


A name in the Italian language consists of a given name and a surname ; in most contexts, the given name is written before the surname, although in official documents, the surname may be written before the given name or names.
Italian names, with their fixed nome and cognome structure, differ from the ancient Roman naming conventions, which used a tripartite system of given name, gentile name, and hereditary or personal name (or names).
The Italian nome is not analogous to the ancient Roman nomen; the Italian nome is the given name, while the Roman nomen is the gentile name. Female naming traditions, and name-changing rules after adoption for both sexes, likewise differ between Roman antiquity and modern Italian use. Moreover, the low number, and the steady decline of importance and variety, of Roman praenomina starkly contrast with the current number of Italian given names.
In Southern Italy, one portion in a person's name may be determined by the name day. These name days are determined according to the sanctorale, a cycle found in the General Roman Calendar, which assigns to a day a saint, so that different names often are celebrated on that day. Traditionally, parents fix the name day of their child at christening, according to their favourite saint; in case of different ones with the same name; that child will carry it throughout life. In the case of multiple given names, the child will celebrate only one, usually the first.

Given names

Typical Italian male given names:
Typical Italian female names:
A few names end with an accented vowel, for instance Niccolò.
Almost every base name can have a diminutive form ending with -ino/-ina, as in Carolina from Carola, Martina from Marta, or -etto/etta, or -ello/-ella. Diminutive forms can vary depending on the dialect.
The most common names are:
Since the ancient Romans had a very limited stock of given names, very few modern Italian given names are derived directly from the classical ones. A rare example would be Marco.
Some nomi were taken from classical clan names for their meanings or because they are euphonic, such as Emilio/Emilia, Valerio/Valeria, Claudio/Claudia, Orazio, Fabio, Flavio/Flavia.
When combined with a second given name, Giovanni and Pietro are commonly contracted to Gian- and Pier-, as in Giancarlo, Gianfranco, Gianluca, Gianluigi, Gianmarco, Giampaolo, Giampiero, Pierfrancesco, Piergiorgio, Pierluigi, Pierpaolo, and so on.
Italian unisex names are very rare, but the feminine name Maria can be used as a masculine second name, as in Carlo Maria, Gianmaria,'' etc.

Surnames

Italy has the largest collection of surnames of any country in the world, with over 350,000. Men—except slaves—in ancient Rome always had hereditary surnames, i.e., nomen and cognomen. However, the multi-name tradition was lost by the Middle Ages. Outside the aristocracy, where surnames were often patronymic or those of manors or fiefs, most Italians began to assume hereditary surnames around 1450.
Registration of baptisms and marriages became mandatory in parishes after the Council of Trent in 1564.

Suffixes

A large number of Italian surnames end in i due to the medieval Italian habit of identifying families by the name of the ancestors in the plural. For instance, Filippo from the Ormanno family would be called "Filippo degli Ormanni". In time, the middle possessive portion was dropped, but surnames became permanently pluralized even for a single person. Filippo Ormanno would therefore be known as Filippo Ormanni. Some families, however, opted to retain the possessive portion of their surnames, for instance Lorenzo de' Medici literally means "Lorenzo of the Medici". Another example of the use of plural suffix in Italian surnames is Manieri which is the plural form of Mainiero.
Some common suffixes indicate endearment, for example:-ello/etto/ino, e.g., Morelli, Ferretti, Bellini-one, e.g., Marconi-accio/azzo/asso, e.g., Boccacci
Other endings are characteristic of certain regions:
  • Veneto: -asso, -ato/ati, and consonants ; -on: Bissacco, Zoccarato, Cavinato, Brombal, Bordin, Meneghin, Perin, Vazzoler, Peron, Francescon, Zanon, Fanton
  • Sicily: -aro, -isi and -osso: Cavallaro, Torrisi, Rosso
  • Lombardy and Piedmont: -ago/ghi, -engo/enghi : Salmoiraghi, Ornaghi, Martinengo, Giordanengo, Lambertenghi
  • Lombardy: -ate/ati/atti: Lunati, Bonatti, Moratti, Orsatti
  • Piedmont: -ero, -audi, -asco,''-zzi, -ini: Ferrero, Rambaudi, Bonazzi, Baldovini
  • Friuli: -otti/utti and -t: Bortolotti, Pascutti, Codutti, Rigonat, Ret
  • Tuscany: -ai, -ini, -ucci: Niccolai, Puccini, Vannucci
  • Sardinia: -u, -as and -is, derived from the Sardinian language : Cadeddu, Schirru, Marras, Argiolas, Floris, Melis, Abis, Cannas
  • Calabria: -ace: Versace
  • Campania: -iello: Borriello, Aiello, Manganiello
  • Abruzzo: -us, -is and -iis'' that stem from traditional Latin names: Fidelibus, De Sanctis, De Laurentiis

Origins

As in most other European naming traditions, patronymics are common. Originally they were indicated by a possessive, e.g., Francesco de Bernardo, meaning "Francis of Bernard". De Luca remains one of the most common Italian surnames. However, de was often dropped and suffixes added, hence de Bernardo evolved to be Bernardo and eventually pluralized as Bernardi.
The origin or residence of the family gave rise to many surnames, e.g.:
  • Habitat: Boschi/''Bosco, Valle
  • Specific placename:
  • *Abruzzi/Abruzzese/Abruzzesi/D'Abruzzo
  • *Bergamaschi/Bergamelli/Bergami/Bergamin/Bergamini/Bergamo
  • *Bologna/Bologni/Bolognese/Bolognesi
  • *Bresci/ Brescia/Bresciani/Bresciano/Brescianini
  • *Calabrese/Calabresi/Calabria
  • *Catalani/Catalano
  • *Catanese/Catanesi/Catania
  • *Comaschi/Comasco/Comencini/Comi/Comin/Comini/Cominotto/Comis/Comisso/Dacomi/Da Como/Dacomo
  • *Danese/Danesi
  • *Emiliani/Emiliano
  • *Fiorentini/Fiorentino/Firenze/Florenzi
  • *Francese/Francesi/Franzese/Franzesi
  • *Furlan/Furlani
  • *Inglese/Inglesi
  • *De Genova/Di Genova/Genova/Genovese/Genovesi
  • *Greco
  • *Lodes/Lodesani/Lodetti/Lodi/Lodigiani
  • *De Lucca/Di Lucca/Lucca/Lucchesi/Lucchese
  • *Maltese/Maltesi
  • *De Milano/Di Milano/Milano/Milanese/Milanesi
  • *De Napoli/Di Napoli/Napoli/Napoletani/Napoletano/Napolitani/Napolitano
  • *Da Padova/Di Padova/Padova/Padovani/Padovano/Patavini/Patavino/Padovan
  • * Palermo/Palermitani/Palermitano
  • *Parigi/Parisi
  • *Pavese/PavesiPavia
  • *Perugini
  • *De Pisa/Di Pisa/Pisa/Pisani/Pisano
  • *Portoghese/Portoghesi
  • *Puglisi/Pugliese
  • *Romagnoli/Romagnolo
  • *Romani/Romano
  • *Salerno/Salernitani/Salernitano
  • *Sardo
  • *Senesi
  • *Siciliani/Siciliano
  • *Spagnoli/Spagnolo/Spagnuolo
  • *Svizzero
  • *Tedeschi/Tedesco/Tedisco/Todeschi/Todesco
  • *Toscani/Toscano
  • *Trentin/Trentini
  • *Trevisan/Trevisani
  • *Umbri/Umbro
  • *Veneziani/Veneziano
  • *Veronese/Veronesi
  • *Visentin/Visentini
  • Nearby landmarks: Della Rovere, Fontana, Castelli
Ancestors' occupation was also a great source of surnames:
Nicknames, referring to physical attributes or mannerism, also gave rise to some family names, e.g., Rossi and Mancini.
Another common category is surnames given to abandoned children and foundlings: Casadei, Colombo, Di Dio, Esposito, Innocenti, Proietti, Sperandio, Trovati, Venturini. Umberto Eco and Franco Zeffirelli's surnames also are foundling names.
A few family names are still in the original Latin, like De Amicis and Ferraris'', reflecting that the family name has been preserved from Medieval Latin sources as a part of their business or household documentation or church records.

Second surnames

In some areas of Italy, individuals and their descendants may have taken a second surname, attached to the first by the word detto, vulgo, or dit. This practice was mostly used to distinguish between different branches of the same family, especially when the families remained in the same town for generations.
Occasionally, a very similar name to the one already used by the family was adopted in order to better parallel local naming styles. For example, when they settled and founded their firm in France, the Mellerio family of jewellers, from Valle Vigezzo, modified their name to Mellerio dits Meller.
Some families with such names eventually drop the first part or even in rare cases the second, as with the Mellerio family.

Articles

The traditional rule, which is the common usage, especially in Tuscany, is that in referring to people by their surnames alone, the definite article should be used. Mario Rossi, therefore, is called il Rossi. Now, some prefer to use the article only or chiefly for historical surnames
Male given names are never preceded by an article except in popular northern regional usage.
However, in Tuscany and the rest of Northern Italy, given names of females are usually preceded by articles unless one is speaking of a woman who is personally unknown. That is also the traditional grammar rule.
Articles are also used with the surnames of women: Gianni Rossi can be called il Rossi or simply Rossi, but Giulia Bianchi is usually la Bianchi.
Names that are derived from possessions of noble families normally never had articles preceding them such as the House of Farnese and the Cornaro family. Articles were also omitted for surnames with an identifiable foreign origin such as Cicerone.
That practice somewhat resembles the Greek custom of placing definite articles before all names. The Greco-Italian practice even spread to French in the 17th century, especially in writings regarding figures in literature and painting such as le Poussin.