Old-Fashioned Italian Baby Names

Above: a monument to Varenna’s WWI dead. If your last name was Pensa (“think”), why would you name your child Innocente? Monuments like this also give clues to names which were once common but have now fallen out of popularity: Gaspare [GAHS-pah-ray], Eliseo [ell-lee-ZAY-oh], Oreste [oh-RES-tay], Sigismundo [sih-jiss-MOON-doh] and Corrado [cor-RAH-doh] are very rare today.… Continue reading Old-Fashioned Italian Baby Names

Italian Baby Names I Happen to Like

Some less common but still current Italian baby names that I happen to like: Alessandra [ah-less-SAHN-dra] Corrado [cor-RAH-do] – I’ve only ever seen this on an older (now dead, in fact) television personality, but have always liked it. Equivalent to the English Conrad. Dario [DAH-ree-oh] From the old Persian Darius, the name of several kings.… Continue reading Italian Baby Names I Happen to Like

Italian Surnames: The Funny, Surprising, and Just Plain Weird

^above “Queen Hope, widow of Wells” – she lived a good long life! Il Corriere della Sera reports today that Italy has the largest number of surnames in the world: 350,000. The ten commonest surnames cover only 1% of the population. And, with many surnames, you can also tell something about its origins by its… Continue reading Italian Surnames: The Funny, Surprising, and Just Plain Weird

Unusual Italian Baby Names

photo taken in Mantova Dino [DEEN-oh] is a common nickname for a number of names. This guy must have a sense of humor: “Dino Nosari” sounds like dinosauri – dinosaurs. photo taken in Mantova I’d never heard the name Modestino [mod-ess-TEEN-oh] (literally “little modest one”), but it’s rather sweet, especially in combination with his surname,… Continue reading Unusual Italian Baby Names