ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3169 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3169 ************************************ 31 Aug 2006 From: Aryanhwy merch Catmael Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You wanted to know if is an appropriate name for an Italian man living between 1400 and 1600. You said your preference was for someone living near Naples, but that you were flexible. Here is what we have found. The name you've chosen is a fine name for central Italy. The given names and , and the family name can all be found in Florence in 1427. [1] A byname such as would indicate that you were the son of ; this type of construction was quite common in the earlier part of your period. [2] The name would have been pronounced roughly \mee-keh-LEE-noh dee DJEE-noh mar-TEE-nee\, with secondary stress on the first syllable of . However, a name which is appropriate for central Italy isn't necessary appropriate for southern Italy, as during our period the dialects, name pools, and name constructions used in these two regions of Italy differed, sometimes greatly. We don't have any good sources for names in the Neapolitan dialect (most of our data from Naples comes from Latin records), so we have looked at names in Sicilian and Pugliese dialects. Because these dialects do differ from the Neapolitan dialect, they are not the best guide to spellings. For example, Sicilian tends to use <-u> as the final vowel in masculine nouns where standard Neapolitan uses <-o>. However, we've also found some Neapolitan examples in northern Calabria which use <-u> where we would have expected <-o>. [4] Because of the uncertainty, we cannot be absolutely sure that the spellings we are recommending are appropriate for Naples. is a diminutive of . We did not find any examples of in southern Italy, though we did find six examples of in Palermo in 1480; this is a southern Italian form of . [3] Also in Palermo in 1480 we found a number of diminutive forms of other names, including , , and . Based on this, we believe that is a plausible Sicilian diminutive form of . [3] It may also be appropriate for northern Neapolitan, but it may not be appropriate for Naples. The Latinized form of , , can be found in Sicily in the early 14th century. [5] We're not certain what the vernacular form of is in Sicilian or Pugliese. The names and can both be found in Palermo in 1480, so based on this we believe that the Sicilian vernacular of is probably . [3] We believe that the Pugliese vernacular is probably . We were unable to find any examples of the family name in southern Italy during your period; the earliest example we found was from 1722. All other examples of that we found were of northern or central Italian families, and in general this type of family name was not found in southern Italy. [6,11] However, we did find examples of the given names , in Rome between 1473 and 1484 [7], and , in Palermo in 1480. [3] In Sicily, the Greek spelling can be found a. 1047 and 1137 and the Latin spellings a. 1283, a. 1323. [8] We also found the Pugliese diminutive in 1581. [9] In southern Italy, and are used both as the preposition 'of' in patronymic bynames (such as discussed above). [10] Based on this, we can recommend the following names as appropriate for southern Italy during your period: probably appropriate for Naples: Micheli di Gino Micheli de Gino Micheli di Martino Micheli de Martino appropriate for Sicilian and possibly northern Neapolitan, but perhaps not for Naples: Michelinu di Ginu Michelinu de Ginu Michelinu di Martinu Michelinu de Martinu Micheli di Ginu Micheli de Ginu Micheli di Martinu Micheli de Martinu If you are interested in the pronunciation of any of these names, please let us know. We hope that this letter has been useful to you and that you won't hesitate to write us again if any part was unclear or you have further questions. Research and commentary on this letter was provided by Maridonna Benvenuti and Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, -Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 31 August 2006 -- References: [1] Ferrante laVolpe, _Men's names from Florence, 1427_ (WWW: Self-published, 1996; Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1999). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/ferrante/catasto/ [2] Friedemann, Sara L., "Names from Arezzo, Italy, 1386-1528" (WWW: Self-published, 2003) http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/italian/arezzo.html [3] Di Pasquale, Armando, _Palermo nel 1480. La popolazione del quartiere della Kalsa_ (Palermo: Edizioni Mori, 1975). [4] "Neapolitan language" (WWW: Wikipedia.org, 19 August 2006). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neapolitan_language [5] Caracausi, Girolamo, _Dizionario Onomastico della Sicilia_ (Palermo, 1994), s.n. Gino. [6] di Crollalanza, G.B., _Dizionario Storico - Blasonico delle Famiglie Nobili e Notabili Italiane Estinte e Fiorenti_, 3 vols (Arnaldo Forni Editore, 1886). [7] Mari neyn Brian, "Italian Men's Names in Rome, 1473-1484" (WWW: Academy of S. Gabriel, 2003) http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mari/Studium/ [8] Caracausi, op. cit., s.n. Martino. [9] Minervini, Pantaleo, _Dizionario dei Cognomi Pugliesi_ (Schena Editore: 2005). [10] De Felice, Emidio, _Dizionario dei cognomi italiani_ (Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 1978), s.n. Martini . [11] Fucilla, Joseph G., _Our Italian Surnames_ (Evanston, IL: Chandlers' Inc., 1949), pp. 15-16.