Italy Project Name Field Guidelines
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WikiTree Guidance on Name Fields
Contents |
Introduction
For centuries Italy has had certain naming traditions and even a holiday to commemorate a person's name. On WikiTree, we strive to follow the traditions, what they are, and their implications in genealogical research.
The Italy project, like many other nation-based projects, aims to use the name people were born with and the names that person would have likely used during their lifetime.
If there are any questions about the contents of this page, feel free to message anyone in the Italy Project, post on the g2g forum or discuss the issues in the Google Group.
The basics
- The first male is named after his paternal grandfather.
- The second male is named after his maternal grandfather.
- The first female is named after her paternal grandmother.
- The second female is named after her maternal grandmother.
Subsequent children are named after parents, relative or a saint. There are exceptions to the rule as not every Italian family follows that tradition.
Prefixes
Proper First Name
Multiple first names were and are normal in Italy and all of them should be added in the Proper First Name field.
Preferred First Name
Preferred First Name can be something such as Francescoantonio, Maria Vittoria or just one of the multiple first names. Preferred first name was not necessarily the first of the multiple proper first names.
Middle Name
As Italians don't have middle names, it is a good idea to leave the middle name field empty unless the person is of Italian descent and was born in another country such as the United States. Middle names should only be used if there is documented evidence in a birth record. If he or she has a name such as "Francescoantonio", it should be treated as one whole name.
Current Last Name
In Italy, women keep their birth surname from birth to death. It is been a tradition going back centuries and even today Italian women normally keep the last name they were born with. If an Italian woman lived all of her life in Italy then the surname needs to be filled in both "Last Name at Birth" and "Current Last Name".
If an Italian woman immigrated to another country where the woman takes the husband's name, like the United States, then you can add in the married name in the "Current Last Name" field.
Other Last Names
In Italy, women keep their birth surname from birth to death. If an Italian woman lived all of her life in Italy then the "Other Last Name" field should not be filled in. This field should ideally be kept blank as the woman would not have any other last name.
If she moved to another country, then their customs should apply and the "Other Last Name" field might have a married name when applicable.
Suffixes
The suffix field is limited to ten characters and will appear on the profile after the display name. It is generally accepted that are only to be added if it is an essential part of a person's name be it "junior" or otherwise. They should only be used if documents referred to them with their suffix. If a person had more than one suffix or a prefix, they should be mentioned in the biography.
In Italy, suffixes tend to end in "i" or have "di" before a surname. Some notable examples of this include "Leonardo da Vinci" which means "Leonardo of Vinci". Sometimes suffixes refer to the person's place of birth.
The practice came about due to the medieval Italian habit of identifying families by the names of their ancestors in the plural tense. In time, the middle "of the" was dropped and the letter "i" was put at the end of the last name. For example, "Filippo Ormanno" would therefore be known as "Filippo Ormanni".
Families like the Medici opted to retain the possessive portions of their surnames.
-ello/illo/etto/ino (diminutive "little"), e.g., Bernardello, Vettorello, Iannuccillo, Bortoletto, Bernardino, Ravellino, Verdino -one/ne (augmentative "big"), e.g., Mangione, Bellone, Capone, Pastene, Mantone, Vallone -accio/azzo/asso (pejorative[11]), e.g., Boccaccio, Terrazzo, Varasso
Regions:
- Veneto: -asso, -ato/ati, and consonants (l, n, r); -on: Bissacco, Zoccarato, Cavinato, Brombal, Bordin, Meneghin, Perin, Vazzoler, Peron, Francescon, Zanon, Fanton
- Sicily: -aro, -isi and "osso": Cavallaro, Cherisi, Rosi, Rosso (Sicily, Piedmont and Veneto)
- Lombardy and Piemont: -ago/ghi (of Celtic derivation), -engo/enghi (of Germanic derivation): Salmoiraghi, Ornaghi, Vernengo, Martinengo, Giordanengo, Lambertenghi
- Lombardy: -ate/ati/atti: Lunati, Bonatti, Moratti, Orsatti
- Piedmont: -ero, -audi, -asco,-zzi, -anti, -ini: Ferrero, Rambaudi, Comaco, Bonazzi, Santi, Baldovini
- Friuli: -otti/utti and -t: Bortolotti, Pascutti, Codutti, Rigonat, Ret
- Tuscany: -ai and -aci/ecci/ucci: Bollai, Balducci, Martaci
- Sardinia: -u, -as and -is, derived from the Sardinian language: Pusceddu, Cadeddu, Schirru, Marras, Argiolas, Floris, Melis, Abis
- Calabria: -ace: Storace, Versace
- Campania: -iello: Borriello, Aiello, Manganiello
- Abruzzo: -us, -is and -iis that stem from traditional Latin names: Fidelibus, De Sanctis, De Laurentiis
Resources
- Login to request to the join the Trusted List so that you can edit and add images.
- Private Messages: Contact the Profile Managers privately: Chris Ferraiolo, Frank Santoro, I. Caruso, and Italy Project WikiTree. (Best when privacy is an issue.)
- Public Comments: Login to post. (Best for messages specifically directed to those editing this profile. Limit 20 per day.)
- Public Q&A: These will appear above and in the Genealogist-to-Genealogist (G2G) Forum. (Best for anything directed to the wider genealogy community.)
edited by Mario Zama Escalante
edited by Mario Zama Escalante
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_naming_customs
edited by I. Caruso
edited by Lance Martin
Regardless of that, as we know, in many of these small towns, all of the names are identical. I am sure 30 percent of the boys and girls in my towns are Giovanni or Maria. The number of surnames is just as small. This means I can pull up a list of Maria Martinucci's and get a long list of matches on wikitree. In order to help me enter information from church and civil documents, sometimes I do not know their exact birthdate. I have to go on age and spouse name. Wikitree unfortunately does not display the other last names, so I have to resort to putting the spouses name in the married name field.
I have asked for this to be changed, or the current name field to be renamed Spouses name, but nothing has happened. Thus, I continue to put the spouses name in the current last name field for both men and women so that they can be chosen off the wikitree Find list.
But Domenica's death record that you linked to in her profile lists her as Domenica Martinucci, so her surname wasn't changed.
We're sorry that the search function causes you problems, but entering the surname of a woman's spouse as a "current last name" when it's not supported by records or known tradition isn't a solution.
They are to only be used when the Italian woman (usually an immigrant) has moved to a country where the wife takes the name of the husband.
edited by Chris Ferraiolo
I've been cataloging births in the town of San Pietro a Maida and I've come across many people, man and woman alike, with the same name. How do I prevent duplicates? I use the sources and actual birth dates. A Caterina Butruce born in 1825 is going to be a different person than the Caterina Butruce born five years later if you look at the document. Sometimes they might even be siblings because the earlier one died young. No duplicates will be made in that case, I assure you.
There will not be a problem. Period. You only create a problem if there are no sources and exact dates.