Vicentine Names from the 14th to 16th Centuries

by Maridonna Benvenuti

© 2014 Andrea L. Hicks.

My thanks to Prof. James Grubb and Sig. Michele Brunelli for their assistance.

Introduction

The folowing names are found in Domenico Bortolan's Vocabolario del Dialetto Antico Vicentino (Dal Secolo XIV a tutto il Secolo XVI). Bortolan used private and public documents and their dates for his Vicentine vocabulary.

The names and words are arranged into six lists: women's given names, men's given names, toponyms, topographic by-names, other words and prepositions. The sixth list is a group of theoretical name examples not in Bortolan's book. I have retained Bortolan's modern, Italian spellings for comparison only.

Abbreviations, definitions, and signs

• anc. – ancient
• aph. – aphetic
• dim. – diminutive
• f. – feminine
• m. – masculine
• pl. - plural
• Venetan – modern term for dialects of the Veneto region that is not Venetian.
• Veneto – modern name of the Italian region with Venice as the capital.
• [..] – additions by article author

Naming a child in Renaissance Vicenza and other Venetan areas

Most names given to children in 13th century Vicenza, and elsewhere in northern Italy, alluded to the child, not to ancestors or saints. The name could be augurative¹, descriptive², or express joy at the birth, etc. By the 15th century two naming practices were widely used. The first was giving to the child the name of a recently deceased relative, never a living one. By doing this, the dead would be remembered and the child would have heavenly ally. This practice was called "remaking the dead" and occurred in private homes and some monastic houses³. The second method was giving the child a saints name. These included names of the early church fathers, evangelists, apostles and newer saints. The parents could esteem a saint and have a heavenly ally for the baby named in his or her honor. Most parents of the Veneto did not follow the practices of the Florentines by giving their daughter feminized saint’s names or a given name followed by a saint's name.

Not all parents followed these two popular methods of naming though. Some named their children after civic heroes and ancient persons from history or mythology, but this was uncommon. Because daughters were not in the patrilineal line, parents were freer to give their daughters names other than those of ancestors.⁴

Women's Given Names

Men's Given Names

Toponyms

Places marked with * are located within the Vicentine province.

Topographic by-names

Theoretical name examples

Feminine:

Patronym: Lutia de Zampiero
Surname: Lutia Zampieri
Locative: Gnesetta de (or da) Lamagna
Nickname: Momina dicta Brexana

Masculine:

Patronym: Zanantonio de Stevano
Surname: Zilio Maximiani
Locative: Tomaxo de Berega ¹²
Nickname: Tuogno dicto Paduano

Bibliography

Footnotes

[1] Bonhomo de Armasina, 1254, Croniche di Vicenza, p. 57.

[2] Gatto Caldogno, 1190, Croniche di Vicenza, p. 256.

[3] Sharon T. Strocchia, Naming A Nun, pp. 215-240. Florentine monastic houses.

[4] James S. Grubb, Provincial Families of the Renaissance: Private and Public Life in the Veneto, pp. 42-47.

[5] Ibid., p. 46, "Little Ursula Arnaldi was given the additional name of Imperatrice [Empress] in 1438 because of a recent imperial passage through the city."

[6] Traditional, 2nd century Saint Praxedes.

7 Floriano is found as Florianus (Floriano da Bologna and Floriano da San Pietro di Bologna), 1427/28, in Indici of The Years of the Cupola. Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore, accessed 8/2013. URL: http://archivio.operaduomo.fi.it/cupola/ENG/IN/IN2list1.HTM 8 Emidio De Felice, Dizionario Dei Nomi Italiani, Floriano, s.n. Florio, pp. 172-173. 9 In an email from Prof. James Grubb , 9/27/2013, he stated that both and were used for toponyms . “Vicentine orthography was inconsistent in the fifteenth century, especially in vernacular documents”. The preposition is found in ...le rime di Magagno, Menon e Begotto..., vol. one, Menon section. 10 In modern Venetan, feminine proper names always use the article ‘la’ before each name element unless it is in the vocative case (addressing a person), Brunelli, M. General Grammar Book. At this time it is unknown if the article was widely used before the 17th century in the Venetan dialects. Article usage was found in period Vicentine literature by the poet Menon, pseudonym of the famous Vicentine, dialect poet Agostino Rava. Maddalena Campiglia. Flori, a Pastoral Drama: A Bilingual Edition, p.10. The following names were found in the Menon section of La prima parte de le rime di Magagno, Menon e Begotto in lingua rustica.., : La Loretta, la Momina, la Francheschina, la Catharina, and la Malgareretta; la Loretta in the third and fourth volumes. 11 The feminine article is not in his vocabulary, but is found in his sources, ...le rime di Magagno, Menon e Begotto... vols. 1,3,4.

[12] After Tomaso de Berica, Croniche di Vicenza (Italian), p. 312.