New Post
Search
Help[Facts] 2597 Italian names...the submitted ones!!
Hi !!!
I'd like to help with them.
How are the criteria to make a name official.
For example: among all them there is Abbondio. It is not used for babies since 1998 at least and someone could think it is just left in the past...
BUT...
Everyone in Italy know it because it is a character of the second most read book in schools.
On the contrary I saw there some names seen only in the Calendar of Saints. You can give a source but if you show it to an Italian (also educated) he/she would answer: 'What? Does it exist? Here in Italy? Are you sure?'
And what about the dialectal names? The most of 'Venetian', 'Tuscan', 'Sicilian', 'Sardinian' names are just nicknames used in the past generations and colloquially. They are not official ones...
So what in your criteria make a name 'Italian'?
I'd like to help with submitted names but I can't see an order.
Maybe we can use a category 'dialect' or 'Medieval' to sort the most of them that are no longer used/they are obscure also to Italians/They occur only in a calendar?
Well..maybe they should stay as currently are ..submitted names are created to be a huge archive.
Personal Name Lists https://www.behindthename.com/pnl/125456
I'd like to help with them.
How are the criteria to make a name official.
For example: among all them there is Abbondio. It is not used for babies since 1998 at least and someone could think it is just left in the past...
BUT...
Everyone in Italy know it because it is a character of the second most read book in schools.
On the contrary I saw there some names seen only in the Calendar of Saints. You can give a source but if you show it to an Italian (also educated) he/she would answer: 'What? Does it exist? Here in Italy? Are you sure?'
And what about the dialectal names? The most of 'Venetian', 'Tuscan', 'Sicilian', 'Sardinian' names are just nicknames used in the past generations and colloquially. They are not official ones...
So what in your criteria make a name 'Italian'?
I'd like to help with submitted names but I can't see an order.
Maybe we can use a category 'dialect' or 'Medieval' to sort the most of them that are no longer used/they are obscure also to Italians/They occur only in a calendar?
Well..maybe they should stay as currently are ..submitted names are created to be a huge archive.
Personal Name Lists https://www.behindthename.com/pnl/125456
This message was edited 12/10/2018, 4:16 PM
0
Replies
If you want to have 100% clarity about this matter, you will have to ask Mike C. about the official policy on Italian given names. Meanwhile, if you are interested in hearing my personal opinion, it is as follows:
Any given name that originated in Italy in any way, was borne by at least one Italian-born person and/or follows the (grammatical) rules of the Italian language is an official given name worthy of submission. It does not matter if a name is only used informally, but I might be biased in that regard, as I come from a culture (Limburgish) where people predominantly go by informal names instead of the ones on their birth certificate. Some of those have never been recorded as official names on birth certificates, but yet they are widespread, so they are definitely worthy of acknowledgement and submission. As such, I am personally inclined to value informal Italian names and treat them with regard rather than dismiss them.
There is also this to consider: informal names might seem insignificant at first glance, but they often offer a certain insight into a culture that official names do not, so they are also important in that respect. That is the thing - you also have to look at the names from a cultural perspective (at least a little bit), rather than solely a linguistic perspective. After all, culture does influence linguistics to some extent, so you cannot entirely separate the two.
With that said, the age of a name or the extent to which it is used also does not matter, in the sense of: a name that is commonly used today is not more Italian than a name that is no longer in use but was commonly used in the past. Both are equally Italian and equally worthy of submission. You just have to specify how common a particular name is and/or in which era it originated or was most commonly used:
• For names that have a huge amount of living bearers of all ages today, the usage should be just: Italian. If a name recently became hugely popular (e.g. there was an explosion of babies with that name), you could adjust it to: Italian (Modern).
Any given name that originated in Italy in any way, was borne by at least one Italian-born person and/or follows the (grammatical) rules of the Italian language is an official given name worthy of submission. It does not matter if a name is only used informally, but I might be biased in that regard, as I come from a culture (Limburgish) where people predominantly go by informal names instead of the ones on their birth certificate. Some of those have never been recorded as official names on birth certificates, but yet they are widespread, so they are definitely worthy of acknowledgement and submission. As such, I am personally inclined to value informal Italian names and treat them with regard rather than dismiss them.
There is also this to consider: informal names might seem insignificant at first glance, but they often offer a certain insight into a culture that official names do not, so they are also important in that respect. That is the thing - you also have to look at the names from a cultural perspective (at least a little bit), rather than solely a linguistic perspective. After all, culture does influence linguistics to some extent, so you cannot entirely separate the two.
With that said, the age of a name or the extent to which it is used also does not matter, in the sense of: a name that is commonly used today is not more Italian than a name that is no longer in use but was commonly used in the past. Both are equally Italian and equally worthy of submission. You just have to specify how common a particular name is and/or in which era it originated or was most commonly used:
• For names that have a huge amount of living bearers of all ages today, the usage should be just: Italian. If a name recently became hugely popular (e.g. there was an explosion of babies with that name), you could adjust it to: Italian (Modern).
This message was edited 1/11/2019, 5:16 AM
1
If a name was last used in 1998, then it can't be classified as medieval. 1998 was during the lifetime of many users on here, myself included. Medieval would imply that the name hasn't been used in centuries.
"Rare" might be a better moniker if a name sees little to no regular usage.
Not everyone in a given culture is going to be familiar with every single name from that culture. Take the Portuguese Wikipedia's list of names, for example: https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lista_de_nomes_portugueses
I'm from Brazil, where stranger names tend to get more usage than they do in Portugal, but well over half of the names on the list are names I've never met any people with. Some of them I was surprised to find out were names! Some I've only heard on deceased people, such as people I've found in cemeteries and genealogies.
Even in English-speaking countries, the majority of people aren't familiar with every single name. I doubt many Americans recognize obscure names from the older popularity charts, such as Pinkney, Hilliard, Bascom, Seaborn, Capitola, Savilla, Fleta, Pluma, Clevie, Lutie, and Exie. To give an example: according to names.com, Capitola hasn't been used since 1956. The book it originated from (The Hidden Hand) is no longer widely read either.
"Rare" might be a better moniker if a name sees little to no regular usage.
Not everyone in a given culture is going to be familiar with every single name from that culture. Take the Portuguese Wikipedia's list of names, for example: https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lista_de_nomes_portugueses
I'm from Brazil, where stranger names tend to get more usage than they do in Portugal, but well over half of the names on the list are names I've never met any people with. Some of them I was surprised to find out were names! Some I've only heard on deceased people, such as people I've found in cemeteries and genealogies.
Even in English-speaking countries, the majority of people aren't familiar with every single name. I doubt many Americans recognize obscure names from the older popularity charts, such as Pinkney, Hilliard, Bascom, Seaborn, Capitola, Savilla, Fleta, Pluma, Clevie, Lutie, and Exie. To give an example: according to names.com, Capitola hasn't been used since 1956. The book it originated from (The Hidden Hand) is no longer widely read either.
This message was edited 12/31/2018, 7:57 PM
1