Editor's note (2023): This article may contain normalized name spellings. It should not be used as a guide to authentic name forms.
Below is a list of Italian feminine names from Florence in the 14th and 15th centuries, part of the list compiled by Lady Rhian Lyth of Blackmoor Vale. The names were compiled from The Society of Renaissance Florence: A Documentary Study (ed. Gene Bruckerm New York: Harper Torchbooks, Harper & Row, Inc.), which is a collection of diaries and documents of the period, and from The Autobiography of Benevenuto Cellini, as published by Penguin Books. Some of these names are diminutive forms or nicknames derived from other name, but all were used independently in formal legal documents. Most names occur once or twice in these sources; the names which occurred four or more times are in bold face.Anyone who thinks that the range of period female names is too narrow, count how many of these you've never encountered in the SCA.
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Agnella Agnese Agnola Alessandra Anastasia Andrea Andreuola Angela Antonia Bandecca Bartola Bartolomea Bella Belloza Bice |
Bona Buona Catalina Caterina Chola Cicilia Ciecherella Ciosa Ciuta Cristina Dea Diana Dolce Druda Elizabeth |
Fiametta Filippa Fiora Flora Francesca Gemma Ghinga Ghita Gianetta Gilia Ginevra Giovanna Giuliana Gostanza Grana Isabetta |
Jacopa Joanna Lagia Lapa Lena Leonarda Letta Lippa Lisa Lisabetta Lorenza Lucia Lucrezia Madelena Magdalena |
Margherita Maria Marsilia Martinella Masina Mea Nanna Mella Nencia Nezetta Nicolosa Novella Nucca Pasqua Pia Piera |
Paula Rigarda Riguardatta Salvaza Sandra Santa Serena Simona Stella Taddea Tessa Tita Tomasia Tommasa Veroncia |
Rhian Lyth
jldrake@tasc.com