Italian Names
Italian Names posts walk through first names and surnames in Italy, where naming follows a clear set of regional and religious patterns. Articles look at the most common first names like Francesco, Alessandro and Giulia, the saint’s name tradition that determines onomastico celebrations alongside birthdays, regional spellings between north and south, the long list of suffixes (-elli, -etti, -ucci) that mark surnames from different areas and the way many names trace back to a town, an occupation or a long-dead ancestor. There are also notes on noble di and de prefixes and on how immigrants to the United States changed their names.
