|
Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!
You asked for our opinion of the name "Pasquale di Calamari" in 15th
century Italy. Here's what we've found.
"Pasquale" was a common given name in much of period Italy. It was
recorded in a census of Florence in 1427 [1], putting it squarely in your
period.
We did not find evidence that "Calamari" was used as a name of any kind,
but we think it could have been used. It is a form of the Italian word
"calamaro", which means 'squid'. There are a large number of modern
Italian surnames derived from the names of fish: Coronedi (smelt), Carpani
(carp), Termoli (crawfish or torpedos), Lampredi (lampreys), etc. These
names almost certainly derived from medieval or renaissance bynames. Some
of them were probably descriptive nicknames (e.g. "Lampredo" for a tall,
thin man), and other were occupational names (e.g. "Termoli" for a crawfish
gatherer) [2]. So it is entirely plausible that a squid-fisherman or
squid-seller could have been called "Pasquale Calamari". "Calamari" might
also have been bestowed on someone as a nickname -- though perhaps not a
complementary nickname! This possibility allows for the name to have been
used in any class, rather than just among fishermen. We think that in
either case, "di Calamari" is unlikely; the surname would probably have
been used without the preposition "di".
If you are interested in the approximate sound of "Calamari" but don't
actually want the reference to squid, you could use the surname "di
Calimero" or "di Calimeri". "Calimerus" was an early Christian martyr, and
"Calimero" survives as a modern given name [3], so we can confidently
recommend it as a valid period name. In your period, this surname would
have been understood to mean "son of Calimero" or "of the family of
Calimero".
If you choose any of these possibilities, we have a suggestion for when you
get around to design your arms. In period, arms were often designed so
that the name of the central charge sounded similar to the owner's surname:
a lion for "Walter Lyons", a wolf for "Humphrey de Wolfington", and so on.
This practice is called "canting". A squid would make an excellent canting
charge for any of the surnames we've discussed. It would work well even
for the surname "di Calimeri"; even though that name has nothing to do with
squid, it still sounds like "calamari". Because the squid is such an
unusual charge in Society armory, you could use very simple arms, possibly
just a single squid on a plain field. If you're interested in discussing
that possibility, write us again.
I hope this letter has been helpful.
For the Academy,
Arval Benicoeur
References
[1] Ferrante La Volpe, "Italian Names from Florence, 1427", published on
the web at <http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/ferrante/catasto>.
[2] Joseph G. Fucilla, Our Italian Surnames (Evanston, IL: Chandlers' Inc.,
1949).
[3] Emidio De Felice, Dizionario dei Nomi Italiani (Milano: Arnoldo
Mondadori, 1986).