ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2282 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2282 ************************************ From: "Sara L Friedemann" 4 Apr 2001 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wanted to know if would be an appropriate name for a Venetian woman living between 1450 and 1550. You also were interested in the surnames , , and . Here is the information we have found. The only example of a feminine form of that we found before 1600 is in Spain in 1559. [1] We did find the masculine form in Florence in 1427 [3], so it is possible that was also used in northern Italy. However, since we have not found any examples of the name in Italy, we recommend that you chose a different given name. The following articles would all be appropriate places to chose a name from: "Fourteenth Century Venetian Personal Names" http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/arval/venice14/ "Feminine Given Names from the Online Catasto of Florence of 1427" http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/arval/catasto/ "Italian Renaissance Women's Names" http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/rhian/italian.html In particular, if you would like to keep a reference to angels in your name, you might be interested in the name , found in Florence in 1427. [3] The byname , along with the variant , originally derived from the given name . The Venetian form of this surname is , without the preposition . [4] would be a fine surname for you; for example, a 14th century Venetian woman might be named 'Angela of the family of Contin.' The other four surnames you were interested in, , , and , are all found in Venice in the fourteenth century. Any of them would be a fine choice for your surname. [2] Three of these surnames were the surnames of noble families in and near Venice in your period. The Moscenigos were a leading family during your period; many Moscenigos were Doges of Venice in the 15th century. [5] The Foscaris were also a prominent family in Venice [6], and the d'Estes were the rulers of Mantua in your period. was originally a locative byname, meaning "from the canal." [4] We hope that this brief letter has been useful to you and that you won't hesitate to write again if any part was unclear or if you have further questions. Research and commentary on this letter were provided by Arval Benicoeur, Adelaide de Beaumont, Zenobia Naphtali, Maridonna Benvenuti, Talan Gwynek, Julie Stampnitzky. For the Academy, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 04Apr01 -- References: [1] Romera Iruela, Luis, and Ma. del Carmen Galbis Di/ez, _Catalogo de Pasajeros a Indias, Siglos XVI, XVII, y XVIII_ (Sevilla: Archivo General de Insias, 1980), vol. II, p.323, #4259. [2] Arval Benicoeur and Talan Gwynek, "Fourteenth Century Venetian Personal Names" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1999) http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/arval/venice14/ [3] Arval Benicoeur, "Feminine Given Names from the Online Catasto of Florence of 1427" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1998) http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/arval/catasto [4] De Felice, Emidio, _Dizionario dei cognomi italiani_ (Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 1978). s.nn. Canale, Conti [5] "Venetian Doges" http://www.canaan.demon.co.uk/roleplaying/venice/VenHist-Doge.html [6] "Foscari, Francesco", Encyclopaedia Britannica (WWW: britannica.com)