When my brother opened up my son's Christmas gift one year, that elicited a huge, and probably deserved "I told you so" from my wife.
Names are a big deal to the generation before us. And for many of us. My older two sons are named Alessandro and Anthony, after their grandfathers. My
cousins all sport names that are family based. As do many of my Italian friends.
I'm am OK with that.
Grandparents and Saints are all you need to name your family. If you read an Italian's obituary, you can easily place the names of most people listed.
No need to explain why there are so many Joseph's and Mary's (Giuseppe/Giuseppina and Maria/Mario). By the way, Maria is my sister's name. And my aunt. And my other aunt.
Why are their so many Francesco's and Francesca's in Italy? Because St Francis of Assisi is the patron saint of Italy.
Many Italians are named also Antonio or Antonella after Saint Anthony. He's a big deal in Italy.
Why are their so many Gabriel's in the Region of Abbruzzo? Because San Gabriele is the patron Saint of Abruzzo. (side fact ... San Gabriele was born Francesco Possenti. Even a saint was named after a saint)
My father's home town of Pacentro, AQ has San Marco as their patron saint. My nonno's brother's name is Marco as is my cousin, as are a whack of other people in that town.
Saint Francis of Paola of the patron saint of Calabria, another sizeable source of immigrants to Canada. This reinforces the Calabrese based Frank's in Canada
One thing that is missing among many of my first generation Italian friends is the lack of middle names. Many of us don't have one.
If you were born on the day of a feast for a certain saint, your chances of being named after them probably increased. If you weren't born on the day your name has a feast, you will still get a "best wishes" call from your aunt on the day of your name sake. She will forget your birthday, but not your "name day". For me, San Francesco is October 4.
If you have the name of a saint, the day of their feast is your "name day" or "onomastico" in Italian. I didn't know that word existed until a good friend asked me what this meant about a year ago. I was amazed that there was even a word for it.
If you want to know your onomastico, click here.
Figuring out our names is not that difficult. They usually stem from:
- Maria, but that's every Christian country.
- Our grandparents
- Our parents
- The saint who has a feast the day you were born
- The patron saint of the town
- The patron saint of the province
- The patron saint of the region
- The patron saint of the country.
Check out this link for a list of who is the patron saint of where. You can discover why so many of your Greek friends are named George and Nick. Or this link for who is the patron saint of what.
My wife's cousin (on mother's side) from Baltimore is a holdout from the DeadHead era. He's an incredible individual and one of my favourite people, but that's a different story for a different day. At a family wedding, a bunch of us were hanging out by the bar and he came so I introduced him to the gang. Not realizing, I said "Scott, this is our cousin Frank, our cousin Tony, our other cousin Frank, our other cousin Tony, and another cousin Tony." he took a step back, looked at us all and just said "Whooooooaaaaaaaa". Six people. Two names. It was 22 years ago but we still laugh about that moment.
What happens if somebody descended from another immigrant group (let's say Polish for example) marries an Italian? How do they figure out what to name the kid? I know a couple where the wife is from Greece and the father from India and the baby has an incredible combination of Greek and Indian names!
ReplyDeleteSame thing with any couples now who marry across cultural lines. The first names don't always match the last name. You have a surname like, say, Agostinelli, and the first name is Abdul or Kyle. Whaddayougonnado?
DeleteAnother amazing discovery. I could always tell growing up in both elementary and high school the amount of students in my classes with Italian backgrounds. They always had an A in their name somewhere. More importantly I found the prefixes in their surnames to be especially of note. Di was a common one and the amount of the subsequent suffix was extremely varied but always kept those first two letters the same.
ReplyDeleteThis is so interesting! On the one hand, that must be a nightmare in Italian classrooms with name duplicates. On the other hand, what a cool way to stay connected to both your regional and religious identity.
ReplyDeleteNaming conventions vary so much across the world. My mother's town in Newfoundland consists of people who all go by their middle names. So for example, my Uncle's name is Malcolm John Roberts, but he only goes by John Roberts. It's the same with pretty much everyone else in that town. My cousins also adhere to this convention, despite having grown up in Ontario, whereas my sisters and I go by our first names.
Frank, after reading this post I just realized that I graduated high school with your son Alessandro! Small world, eh? Moving on, I really enjoyed this post. I didn't know how much actually goes into the naming of a child. My mom is a genealogist and often finds herself a bit befuddled when she reads old census records with families of 8 to 13 people or more and all three of the daughters are Mary and two of the sons are John and there are cousins named Mary and John and Aunts and Uncles named Mary and John. The struggle! While it can become a bit much sometimes, I have to appreciate the Italian culture for their strength and respect for past family members. I always look forward to your posts because they make me laugh. Good job!
ReplyDeleteHey Frank! I'm just looking through your posts and realized that the comment that I made on this post last week isn't visible here. I just want to make sure that you got it! Thanks.
ReplyDelete