Insight on naming traditions/locales

[MarcuccioV]

I'm curious as to whether anyone here has studied or has enlightening knowledge on Italian child-naming traditions -- or if any such traditions really exist.

It has been noted many times that often first sons (and often daughters) are named for grandparents (and there is occasionally variation on WHICH grandparent) & subsequent children often being named for other defunct family members.

In other cases, many children in a particular town/commune are named for the hamlet's patron saint.

While in my research of those relatives in my tree that I have a paper trail for, I DO see this occurring occasionally (my mother was named for her paternal grandmother who died at age 51 whom she never met), it is by far NOT the norm -- in fact, often children were given names that were practically unheard of in the town or extremely rare at best. My middle name is my maternal grandfather's and I am an only child.

I do have a few male relatives named for the town's patron, Luigi (Aloysius of Gonzaga), but none using the female forms of Luigia/Luisa.

And of course there are the typicals of Giuseppe, Giovanni, Francesco, Maria, Rosa, etc.

Others (on both grandparent's sides) such as Agostino, Armida, Attilia, Carlo, Ersillia, Gentilina, Giacomo, Luciano, Modesta, Nello, Odoardo, Vespina & Vito are not repeated in previous generations nor common within the commune.

Is this sort of naming tradition typical or an outlier..? Would it indicate possibly names common to other regions/communes that my forebears may have migrated from..? Sadly the paper trail going back stops at 1871 so my research is roadblocked there.

The one relative I traced to a neighboring commune has a name practically unheard of in my grandparent's town, but is popular in her own (Chiara). Yet I don't see the other names as being popular in the closest communes, either.

Can anyone shine any light on this..? Are any of the above names common to other areas anyone has researched..? 23&Me lists my DNA as strongest to the following regions: Lazio, Abruzzo, Campania, Sicilia and Puglia.

Any help appreciated.

[darkerhorse]

In my Sicilian family, the rule was (in order of birth) males = paternal grandfather, maternal grandfather, father; females = paternal grandmother, maternal grandmother, mother but in reality exceptions were the rule.

Of course, naming after saints and deceased relatives would break the rule, as well as Americanization of names among immigrants.

[darkerhorse]

Using the names of the towns patrons/martyrs was very common. not only in my family but widespread among paesani.

That tradition carried over into the U.S. by immigrants, and is still common today.

Of course, it often coincided with the names of grandparents anyway because those names were so common among people from those towns. In fact, both grandfathers often had the same name, after the same saint.

[MarcuccioV]

It seems odd to me that the traditional naming theme is more of an exception in most of my lines -- where it does occur, it's usually on the same couple of branches. The unusual (at least in the native town) names seem to predominate and then are not repeated...

[darkerhorse]

In my paternal line, as far back as the paper trail goes, my father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and 3x great-grandfather were all named after their paternal grandfather.

The only exception was my 2x great-grandfather whose brother carried the name.

So first names alternated each generation, which helped me identify ancestors at the town hall in Sicily, given the language barrier. The clerk smiled and got the message when I gestured, "Sebastiano, Angelo, Sebastiano, etc.".

By the way, in 1994, I was warmly welcomed in my ancestral home town by residents and town officials alike, with only one exception - an old lady with my surname who looked perturbed when I tried to establish kinship. Otherwise, I was welcomed like a dignitary.

I wonder if that's the typical experience for we grandchildren of immigrants.

[darkerhorse]

My grandmother's family, from the same town in Sicily, broke the rule before immigrating by naming the oldest son after a deceased relative, and then naming the second son after the grandfather.

The oldest daughter was named after the paternal grandmother, and the next oldest after the maternal grandmother.

No children were named after the father or mother.

Some of their 2nd generation children continued the naming tradition (especially for the first born daughter after the paternal grandmother, if not the actual name, some variation) but some deviated.

[MarcuccioV]

Your family's scenario seems to be the more common tradition, which begs back to my original question -- is our more uncommon way unusual..? And what might the reasoning be..? The names had to come from somewhere/someone. I can't swallow that so many branches of forebears just pulled random names out of a hat...

[darkerhorse]

Maybe the spouses in your family (especially the females) had more influence than usual in naming children. Have you researched those lines as much?

[darkerhorse]

Check the names from your male ancestors versus your female ancestors. The females in your family probably had names dictated by their husbands. Maybe some of the uniqueness stems from that.

My grandfather and his male paternal first cousins who immigrated numbered ten from four different fathers. There were four Angelos, three Vincenzos, two Salvatores, and one Sebastiano.

My grandfather had no paternal aunts by blood so I can't compare what their sons names would have been.

Let's see if you get other replies.

[MarcuccioV]

Check the names from your male ancestors versus your female ancestors. The females in your family probably had names dictated by their husbands. Maybe some of the uniqueness stems from that.

My grandfather and his male paternal first cousins who immigrated numbered ten from four different fathers. There were four Angelos, three Vincenzos, two Salvatores, and one Sebastiano.

My grandfather had no paternal aunts by blood so I can't compare what their sons names would have been.

Let's see if you get other replies.

I doublechecked the siblings of the various ancestors to try to discern a pattern, but there is none. Only in a few isolated cases was a child named for a grandparent, and only once for a parent ("Francesca" from Francesco).

Practically no repeats on any branch.

The deeper I researched, the more unusual and unique the names seemed to be (on ALL branches). Having researched the commune's records in-depth, I can say that many of the names rarely (if ever) appeared (over 75 years).

Also many of the families in those records followed the same pattern as yours, so it's not like it was a common tradition in the commune to not repeat names -- it just seems as if in my branches, that WAS in fact the case.

Another in a long line of unsolved mysteries. And I'm sure not the last...

[darkerhorse]

In my case, the repeated names makes genealogy research more difficult, trying to identify who's who.

In my parents' wedding book they wrote the name of the town to identify each guest - for example, Mr. & Mrs. John Smith - East Reading and Mr. & Mrs. John Smith - Bedford

I hear that they all had nicknames, in part, because of their repeated first names.

[MarcuccioV]

In my case, the repeated names makes genealogy research more difficult, trying to identify who's who.

In my parents' wedding book they wrote the name of the town to identify each guest - for example, Mr. & Mrs. John Smith - East Reading and Mr. & Mrs. John Smith - Bedford

I hear that they all had nicknames, in part, because of their repeated first names.

That would make perfect sense.

[darkerhorse]

Have you looked at the frequency distribution of names by town in Ancestry.com (excluding the U.S.)?

For example, Armida (exact match) is most prevalent in Milan. Rome is relatively frequent too.

Maybe your family's naming reflects non-Italian heritage or just a family tradition to name outside the box.

[MarcuccioV]

Have you looked at the frequency distribution of names by town in Ancestry.com (excluding the U.S.)?

For example, Armida (exact match) is most prevalent in Milan. Rome is relatively frequent too.

Maybe your family's naming reflects non-Italian heritage or just a family tradition to name outside the box.

I have not looked into that yet.

IIRC, Armida was a character in an opera, so I can see how it could be more common to those cities. I have no ties to Milan that I know of.

It's interesting, however, that none of the various branches that filter down to me seem to have been "into" the culturally traditional naming process...

[darkerhorse]

Maybe it's more common in Sicily than in the (north) mainland?

If you search on Ancestry, you probably should compute percentages because the larger provinces and towns have more records in general.

And, of course, the results are biased, favoring places for which records have been digitized and included.

But, if you want to make the effort, I think the results would be useful.

Without going into details, I used that approach - relative frequency distribution of records by place on Ancestry - to find an immigration record for someone's long lost ancestor, after they had been searching for ages.