|
Greetings from the Academy of St. Gabriel!
Here is the information we found on "Umberto Jacopo Casaubon Diotavelli," which you would like to use as an Italian name from Florence.
Double given names were rare until late in our period, and even then they were the exception rather than the rule. Double bynames were more common, particularly if the two bynames expressed different types of information about the person. However, single bynames were the most common usage until the Renaissance. If you don't know yet when you want to set your persona, we suggest choosing one given name and one byname.
"Umberto" was apparently rare in period Italian. It is a Germanic name documented as "Humbertus" and "Umbertus" from the 8th c. It was, however, traditional in the house of Savoy ("Umberto I Biancamano" 11th century).(1)
"Jacopo" is a variant of "Giacomo," "Giacobo," but is a typically southern Italian spelling.(1) We do have examples of the name from Florence in 1427, where it was spelled "Iacopo".(3) However, there is really no difference between "Jacopo" and "Iacopo;" the Italian alphabet had only one letter "I/J" where we have two, and "J" was just a different way of writing it.
"Casaubon" is French.(2) If you particularly like the sound, you could use "Casabona", a fairly generic Italian local byname meaning "good house."(1)
We did not find "Diotavelli," but we did find "Diotallevi." This is one of a class of Italian surnames derived from phrases meaning "God 'verb' you!", which were used as given names.(1)(4) The most common of the Italian examples is "Dio ti salvo", meaning "God save you" (also "Diotasalvo"). "Diotallevi" means "God nurse you".(4)
We don't know whether these "God 'verb' you!" names were common in Florence; however, we do know that several of them were in use there in the 15th century. We found examples of "Dietisalvi," "Dietifeci," and "Dietaiuti," meaning, respectively, "God save you," "God make you(?)" and "God aid you." (5)
"Vello" means "fleece" (the noun, not the verb), so "Diotavelli" isn't very likely. If it is also from "Foucault's Pendulum," it is entirely possible that Eco was making a deliberate play on words, "God fleece you!"
If you choose one given name and one byname, you will have a name appropriate for any time in medieval or renaissance Florence, for example, "Jacopo da Casabona" or "Iacopo Diotallevi." In later period, from the 14th century onward, you could use both bynames since one is a personal description and the other is a place of origin: "Iacopo Diotallevi da Casabona." In the late 15th or 16th century, you could use a double given name; but "Umberto" was apparently never common in Florence, so we don't recommend this choice.
We hope this has been helpful, and that we can continue to assist you.
Arval d'Espas Nord and Talan Gwynek contributed to this letter.
In service,
Giulietta da Venezia
Academy of S. Gabriel
(1) De Felice, Emidio, Dizionario dei Cognomi Italiani, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 1978.
(2) Dauzat, Albert, Dictionnaire Etymologique des Noms de Famille et Prénoms de France, Libraire Larousse, Paris, 1987.
(3) Ferrante laVolpe, _Men's names from Florence, 1427_ (WWW: Self-published, 1996).
(4) Fucilla, Joseph G., Our Italian Surnames, Chandler's Inc, Evanston, Illinois, 1949.
(5) David Herlihy and Christiane Klapisch-Zuber, Census and Property Survey of Florentine Domains in the Province of Tuscany, 1427-1480. Machine readable data file. Online Catasto of 1427 Version 1.1. Online Florentine Renaissance Re sources: Brown University, Providence, R.I., 1996.)