Americanized versions of italian names

[hailaugustus!]

As I continue my own family research, I am finding out that quite a few of my relatives altered there names to make them sound more American.
A few examples in my own case: 1) Andrea = Andrew
2) Calogero = Charles
3) Mattia = Martha
ect. ect. ect....
Is there a website or a book to be found that will have the common english name equivalents? This would really come in handy as I start getting into the italian birth records on microfilm

[vj]

Here are a few that may help:

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Poin ... ame.html#A
http://www.behindthename.com/nmc/ita.php
http://www.nomix.it/700a.php

And from FamilySearch:
Italian Genealogical Word List

[uantiti]

Hi,
just a little info: Mattia in Italy it's a masculine name.
How is it that it turned into Martha ?

Ciao Ada

[nuccia]

Ada,

I was thinking the same thing. I thought Mattia was a males name as well.

[Lucap]

Only an oddity: during XVII and XVIII century Mattia was also used like a feminine name, but in XIX and XX it was mainly (if not exclusively) masculine

L.

[uantiti]

Anyway, I had a look at a dictionary by E. De Felice on Italian Names and there is a feminine version of this name, mostly used in the South of Italy: Mattea.

Buona giornata!

Ada

[nuccia]

Thanks Luca and Ada. Nice to know.

So another question then.

Could Mattia then also be Matthew and Mattea, Martha???

[liviomoreno]

Could Mattia then also be Matthew and Mattea, Martha???

Indeed Mattia (together with Matteo) could be Matthew, however I don't see any connection between Martha and Mattea.

[hailaugustus!]

[quote="hailaugustus!"] Sorry for the late reply. Thank you all for your help. But for all who responded on how they don't see the mattia -martha connection, I will have you know that my great great grandmother, born in sicily in the mid 1870's happens to be named Mattia. That name is also given on the birth certificates of my great grandmother as well as immirgration records. so I don't know where your getting your facts from, but I know where I'm getting mine! :wink:

[Lucap]

Paese che vai... usanza che trovi!
I told you that Mattia was used in the past as a feminine name (also if i never found it in periods subsequent to 1800-1820) and i'm sure that your ggrandmother's name was Mattia, but i'm SURE that Mattia and Marta (or Martha) are two different names. Maybe when people went to America they gave their names orally to the registrar, who can have misspelled them... but equally Marta and Mattia are different names!

Luca

[liviomoreno]

Sorry for the late reply. Thank you all for your help. But for all who responded on how they don't see the mattia -martha connection, I will have you know that my great great grandmother, born in sicily in the mid 1870's happens to be named Mattia. That name is also given on the birth certificates of my great grandmother as well as immirgration records. so I don't know where your getting your facts from, but I know where I'm getting mine! :wink:

I read many times your post quoted above, and there is no doubt that your gggrandmother was named Mattia in the mid 1870's (Lucap mentioned, in his post, that this name was also used for females), however I still do not see any connection between Mattia and Martha. Maybe they sound similar, but Mattia derives from the Hebrew Matithyah, composed by matath="gift" and Yah, abbreviation of Yahweh="God, Iavè", and therefore means "God's gift", while Martha derives from Aramaic and means "Dominating lady".

[PeterTimber]

Both Mattia and Matteo are both derived from the same hebrew source Matithaya. MATTIA is the Patron((Patrono) Saint of Engineers while Matteo is honored differently. =Peter=

[hailaugustus!]

Alright... That does make sense. Thanks. This website Rocks !!!!!!

[liviomoreno]

At this point I would also mention that Calogero has nothing to do with Charles, which is the English equivalent of Carlo.
Calogero derives from Greek and means "venerable in oldness"
Carlo derives from Germanic and means "free man".

[uantiti]

Livio I agree with you totally! I guess at that time they didn't care much of the meaning but had a very fertile imagination 8O.

Ciao Ada