ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2370 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2370 ************************************ 15 Oct 2001 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether or is an appropriate name for a woman born in Sicily in 1470 who now lives in Genoa. Here is what we have found. In your period, there was no single Italian language. The people of Italy spoke a variety of dialects, some quite different from one another (and some of them spoke non-Italian languages like Greek and Arabic, but that needn't concern us now). The Sicilian dialect, in particular, was significantly different from the Tuscan dialect that became the basis for standard modern Italian, and much more similar to other southern dialects, including Calabrian. Choosing an appropriate name for your persona therefore requires two steps: picking a name appropriate to 16th century Sicily, and then determining how it would have been rendered in the Genoese dialect. As you noted, is a WORD in modern Italian for a particular species of thistle (the general word for "thistle" is ), but that information isn't particularly useful in determining whether it would have been a plausible given name in 15th century Sicily. Although some common words were indeed used as women's given names, they were rare exceptions in most times and places. In order to argue that any particular word would have been considered a reasonable given name, one would need to establish a pattern of the use of similar words -- in this case, other names of particular flowers -- as given names. We don't know of other examples to support the case for using the common noun as a given name. Happily, we don't need it: is a plausible feminine form of the masculine name , which was recorded in use in Palermo, Sicily in the 1560s [1], in Calabria in the 17th century [2], and in Florence in the 15th century [3]. Creating feminine names with the diminutive suffix <-ina> was common throughout Italy, and we've found several examples from 16th century Sicily [4]. Although we have not found an example of in your period, we believe it is at least a plausible name. You translated the second part of your name, , as "wise one". By your period, literal descriptive nicknames like this one had largely fallen out of use in much of Italy, especially among the upper classes in the cities. However, Saint Fortunata is venerated in Naples, so this is not an implausible given name for a southern Italian woman [13]. We've found related names in various parts of Italy: , and , were used as given names in late-period northern Italy and gave rise to family names [5, 6]. Southern forms of the name included , which gave rise to a surname in Calabria [7]; and , recorded in 16th century Palermo [1]. The masculine given name was recorded in use in Florence in the 15th century [3] and in Calabria in the 16th and 17th centuries [4]. In our 16th century Sicilian data, the name is usually spelled and was quite common [1]. We have found examples of only in late-period Florence [10, 11, 12]; it may or may not have been used earlier or elsewhere in Italy. We know only as a Spanish version of this name [8], so we recommend you avoid that form. We don't have a great deal of information about Sicilian naming customs in your period, but we do have data from Sicily in the 16th century and from other parts of Italy in the 15th century, so we think we have a good idea of how a middle class woman would have been named in your period. Most often, a woman would have been known either by her given name and family name; or by her given name and a byname that identified her as her father's daughter. Carlina, daughter of Vicenso Fortunio, could have been called , , or . Middle names (or second given names) were used at least occasionally [9], so another possibility is a woman named , daughter of Paulo Vicenso, who might have been called . When a person had two given names, at least one of them was almost always a saint's name; so using as your middle name is quite reasonable. In Genoa, your name would have been rendered in the local dialect. and or would probably have been familiar to the Genoese, but they would probably have rendered as . So a woman known in Sicily as would likely have been known in Genoa as . We hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Maridonna Benvenuti, Catalana di Neri, Talan Gwynek, Pedro de Alcazar, Adelaide de Beaumont, and Ursula Georges. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 15 Oct 2001 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Lyneya Fairbowe, unpublished research based on baptismal records from 16th century Palermo, Sicily, obtained from the Library of the Church of the Latter Day Saints. [2] Rohlfs, Gerhard, _Dizionario dei Cognomi e Soprannomi in Calabria (Ravenna: A. Longo, 1978), s.n. Mannarino. [3] Ferrante laVolpe, _Men's names from Florence, 1427_ (WWW: Self-published, 1996; J. Mittleman, 1999). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/ferrante/catasto [4] Lyneya Fairbowe. Example include , , , , , , , , , [5] De Felice, Emidio, _Dizionario dei nomi italiani_ (Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, Milan, 1992), s.n. Fortuno. [6] Herlihy, David, R. Burr Litchfield, and Anthony Molho, "Florentine Renaissance Resources: Online Tratte of Office Holders 1282-1532" (WWW: Brown University, Providence, RI, 2000). http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/tratte/ [7] De Felice, Emidio, _Dizionario dei cognomi italiani_ (Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 1978), s.n. Fortuno. [8] Juliana de Luna, "Spanish Names from the Late 15th Century" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1999-2000). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/juliana/isabella/ [9] In ref. [1], it appears that by the mid-16th century, middle names were common in Palermo. [10] is the standard modern form of the name of Galileo's father; he lived c.1521-1591. http://es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/Catalog/Files/galilei_vin.html [11] A modern history of the Antinori family includes a who lived 1558-1610. http://www.antinori.it/ita/paghistfr.htm [12] , 1515-1580 was adminstrator of the Ospedale degli Innocenti in Florence. He is mentioned on the first web page listed below. The second is the table of content of volume 69, nr. 2, June 1997 of the Journal of Modern History; it includes an entry for a paper by Philip Gavitt, 'Charity and State-Building in Cinquecento Florence: Vincenzio Borghini as Administrator of the Ospedale degli Innocenti' http://www.une.edu.au/arts/LCL/disciplines/italian/staff.htm http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JMH/v69n2toc.html [13] "St. Fortunata", _Catholic Online Saints_ (WWW: Catholic Online, 2000). http://www.catholic.org/saints/saints/fortunata.html