L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 2018 www.italoamericano.org 8 FRANCESCA BEZZONE N aming a child is usually one of two things: a matter of trends or a matter of tradition. Every year, parents all over the world let celebrities and VIPs inspire their choices, just as it happened in 2017, when "Rumi" became a top 100 girls' name after Beyon- cé used it for one of her twins. Sometimes parents make more curious choices – think of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West's children, for instance – or even let TV show inspire them: in the 1990s, legends say, quite a few "Brandon" and "Brenda" were born in Italy, after the success of the first series of Beverly Hills 90210. Italy, however, is a coun- try where the majority of parents favor tradition over novelty, often naming their children after relatives and saints, or digging even deeper into the history of the country and choosing Roman patronymics, as attested by the many Giulia, Giulio, Lucrezia and Cesar walking our streets. When you are from a country like the US, whose backbone has been built upon immigration, names are even more crucial in defining people's identity: they become mirror of a heritage, not only of a family's own history. But the multi-faceted and origi- nal nature of American culture means that, often, names of for- eign extraction become popular among the general public, regard- less to the actual ethnic roots of parents and families. And Italian sounding names seem to be among American parents' most loved, if statistics speak right: five out of the first ten 2017 most popular girls' names are of Ital- ian origin. Cora, Amelia, Isabel- la, Aurora and even number one name, Olivia, are all Italian. Cora has mythological origins, as it is an alternative name for Perse- phone; Amelia is very likely of Roman extraction, deriving from the Amelius and Amius, and is considered a variation of a once common name in Italy, Amalia, beautiful but little heard around today. Isabella is probably the most common in Italy: it is a variant of Elizabeth and, for this reason, considered of Biblical origin. Among the boys, Italian influ- ence is less evident, but still pre- sent: number one spot is held by Atticus, who was a Roman writer (and of course the name of Harp- er Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird's protagonist), and another popular name in the top 10, Silas, has Roman mythological origins. But, maybe, counting mytho- logical names among those inspired by Italy may be a bit of a stretch, so let's go back to our Most Popular Baby Names lists and see what else they have on offer. If we read past the top ten, the presence of Italian names gets even more conspicuous and, well, Italian. One example above them all: people like to call their baby boys Dante. Yes, Dante, like our very own divine poet extraordinaire. Among girls, once again, Italian influ- ence seems to be stronger with Emilia, Emma, Ada, Elena, Celeste, Allegra and Aria. Funni- ly enough, though, some of these names are no longer used in Italy: Dante is very rare and so are Celeste and Allegra. Aria, which means air in Italian, is a bit too "try hard" for Italian tastes: in Italy, babies' names are a tradi- tional affair and straying too much from it can often rise a few eyebrows. But let's narrow the focus down to the Italian-American community: here, names do truly become a sign of heritage and belonging. Names are passed on from generation to generation everywhere but, within a minori- ty, this is somehow even more important because it becomes a symbol of continuity and connec- tion not only with the family's own history, but also with its her- itage and country of origin. There are Francesco, Rosalia or Antonio, Giovanni or Caterina. There probably are many Vincen- zo and many Matteo, all tradi- tional Italian names, that often belonged to grandparents, uncles and aunts who remained in the old country. All of them have one thing in common: they have pro- found Catholic connotations, each belonging to an important saint of the Catholic calendar. This shouldn't surprise at all, because once upon a time giving to your child the name of a saint meant that saint was to protect him or her forever. That's why we have, in Italy, personal patron saints and we celebrate our "ono- mastico," which corresponds to the day the Church dedicates to the saint we bear the name of. And don't think this is no longer a common occurrence: only yes- terday, I was discussing chil- dren's name with a 6 months pregnant friend, who declared her love for "Damiano," but was uncertain whether to pick it because she wanted a religiously significant name . She was happy when I told her Damiano was a martyr honored by the church. That may have not settled the question, but certainly clarified her options! Francesco reminds us of Saint Francis of Assisi (and the current Pope); Rosalia of roses and beau- tiful Palermo, of which she is the saint protector; Antonio carries us all to Padua – or to the desert, depending on which "Antony" you are named after - and so on. Modern parents choosing these names may no longer be aware of their saintly background, but rest assured: those ancestors they're naming their children after cer- tainly were. There's one last interesting thing to discuss about Italian names in the US: their spelling. As said, we Italians of Italy tend to be fairly traditional in the chil- dren-naming department and look with concerned suspicion to any- thing carrying a foreign allure or letter in its spelling – unless, that is, one of the parents is from a different country, in which case it is considered entirely normal. This means we never mess with the way names are spelled: they're just perfect the way they are. In the US, things are slightly different: because of sheer lin- guistic and phonetic reasons, the sounds composing an Italian name can be rendered ortho- graphically in more than one way, allowing parents to play around with letters and put a cre- ative twist on an otherwise tradi- tional name. Giovanni, then, may become Geovanni or Geovanny, Matteo turns into Mateo, in name of the fact English speakers tend not to pronounce double conso- nants, Gino (short for Luigi) may turn into Geno. As beautiful and completely Italian as they may sound, they look foreign to Old World Italians: don't be sur- prised, if they ask you if that's your real name! The world behind your Italian name LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE When it comes to names, Italians like tradition: it's saints or relatives! In the Italian American community, names are a sign of heritage and belonging

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