Italy Naming Customs

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Personal Names

Understanding customs used in German names can help you identify your ancestors in records. Learn to recognize name variations and see clues in names.

Online Tools

• Italian Surnames
• Cognomi Italiani includes a database of Italian Surnames that gives a brief description of the history and origin of the name.
• BYU Italian Script Tutorial:
  • Given Names--Abbreviations
  • Female Given Names
  • Male Given Names
  • List of Surnames

Surnames

Surnames Historical Development

• Before record keeping began, most people had only one name, such as John.
• As the population increased, it became necessary to distinguish between individuals with the same name. The problem was usually solved by adding descriptive information. Giovanni became Giovanni Fabro (John the smith), Giovanni di Matteo (John son of Matthew), Giovanni Basso (John the short), or Giovanni di Napoli (John from Napoli).
• At first surnames applied only to one person, not to the whole family. After a few generations, these names became hereditary and were passed on from generation to generation.
• Surnames developed from several sources. For example:
  • Occupational (based on a person’s trade, such as Carter or Smith)
  • Geographical (based on a person’s residence, such as Drayton or Debenham)
  • Patronymic (based on a person’s father’s name, such as Jones, son of John)
  • Descriptive or nickname (such as Joy or Child)
• The nobility and wealthy land owners were the first to begin using surnames.
• Merchants and townspeople then adopted the custom, as did the rural population. This process took two or three centuries.

Surname "Changes" of Immigrants in the United States

As Immigrants moved into English-speaking countries, their surnames were impacted in a variety of ways.

• Most of the time the surname spelling changed to accomodate the different phonetic spelling in the English language. In other words, the recorder tried to write the name the way he heard it.
• Surnames may also have been translated outright into English, sometimes with a slight twist.
• Within the community, such as the local parish, immigrants may continue to use the original name, while at the same time using English-language equivalents when dealing with local government, census takers, and other English speakers.
• Different branches of the same family may adopt various surname spellings.
• Prior to 1900, formal surname changes documented in local court records are relatively rare.
• During the early 20th Century, especially the World War I era, surname changes are recorded more frequently, as immigrants or, more often, their children, tried to adopt more neutral surnames.

Surnames for Abandoned Children

Abandoned infants had surnames assigned to them by the foundling homes where they were abandoned and often a new surname may be assigned to the infant when placed with a wet nurse in a foster family. For more on this, see the article Italian Infant Abandonment.

Surnames - nobility and wealthy land owners

Surnames were first used by the nobility and wealthy land owners. Later they were used by merchants and townspeople and eventually by the rural population. This process took between two and three centuries. In Italy the practice was mostly established by the 1400s.

Women’s Surnames

Women are referred to by their maiden name in most documents.

Alias Surnames

In some areas of Italy, individuals may have taken a second surname. In records this second surname may be preceded by the word detto, vulgo, or dit. This practice was used to distinguish between different branches of the same family, especially when the families remained in the same town for generations.

Grammatical Effects on Italian Names

With a few exceptions, names in Italy follow the same pattern as the rest of the language: masculine names end in o, and feminine names in a.

Italian genealogical records may be in Italian or Latin and occasionally in German or French. Your ancestor’s name could be in Latin on the birth record, in Italian on the marriage record, and in Latin again on the death record. Names are often spelled quite differently when translated into different languages.

Italian	Latin	English
Elisabetta	Elisabetha	Elisabeth
Giovanni	Joannes	John
Giuseppe	Josephus	Joseph
Di Andrea	Andrei	Andrews or son of Andrew

The following book translates given names into 23 different European languages (including English):

• Janowowa, Wanda, et al. Sownik Imion (Dictionary of Names). Wroclaw: Ossoliski, 1975. (FHL book EUROPE REF 940 D4si; film 1181578 item 2; fiche 6000839.)

Given Names

Italian given names are often derived from Biblical names, such as Giuseppe (Joseph) or from the names of a saint, such as Francesco (Francis).

When baptized, children were usually given several given names. Some of these may be the names of parents or other relatives. In some areas, names given at baptism were not the same names that the child used during life. Civil registration records may only list a child’s first given name, but church records (such as baptism registers) would list all of the given names.

In Italy a particular naming pattern was very common and continues to be used in some regions today. The following pattern may be helpful in researching family groups and determining the parents of the mother and father:

• The first male child was often named for the father’s father.
• The second boy was often named for the mother’s father.
• The first female child was often named for the father’s mother.
• The second girl was often named for the mother’s mother.

If a child died, often the name was given to the next child of that gender.

For Further Reading

• Fourteenth Century Venetian Personal Names - by Josh Mittleman and Brian M. Scott (October 1999)
• Fucilla, Joseph G. Our Italian Surnames. Evanston, Illinois: Chandler’s, Inc., 1949. (FHL book EUROPE 945 D4f.)
• What Can I Learn about My Italian Last Name?
• Your Italian Heritage

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