Names from Sixteenth Century Venice

by Juliana de Luna (Julia Smith)

© 2008 Juliana de Luna; all rights reserved
last updated 25Feb09

While researching Italian names, I came across a book with remarkable information about names of women in the 50 years before 1600. The book Working Women of Early Modern Venice (by Monica Chojnacka, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001) discusses the experience of hundreds of women and men related to them, from census and tax records, wills, and records of trials in the Inquisition.

A variety of names are found here, though certain names (like Caterina) are used by many women. The data, however, are not organized in a way that allows any discussion of the frequency of various names, nor a systematic treatment of construction. However, some notes can be made.

Given names

The vast majority of individuals have single given names and a single byname. Most given names are the names of Christian saints, but others are Latin in origin, while a few are standard vernacular words. Diminutives are relatively common. For women, diminutives are formed by adding -ina or -etta to the name after dropping the final vowel; for men, diminutives are formed by adding -ello or -etto to the name after dropping the final vowel. The forms -ella and -ino are found in other Italian data, and so seem not implausible for sixteenth century Venice.

Some of the names are distinctly Venetian in form, with z taking the place of a soft g: Zuan instead of Giani, Anzola instead of Angela. The letter j is also found in this location, perhaps reflecting outside influences: Julia and Jacomina in addition to Giulia and Iacomina. In addition, many of the men's names drop the final -o, as in Agustin, Bastian, and Valentin.

There are no clear examples of double given names for women (though the woman labeled as Maria Poselina may be an example). There are a handful of compound and double given names for men, including Giovanni Battista in various forms and Marcantonio. Examples of double given names occur with Pier and Zuan (a form of John) in the initial position.

Bynames

The bynames here are mixed, with some literal bynames and others inherited family names. There are several types, including patronymic, locative, occupational, and descriptive bynames. Patronymic bynames are the most common. They take two forms: literal patronymic bynames formed with di or de followed by the father's name, like di Zorzi and de Bastian; and family name structures formed with -i (which may represent either a nominative plural or a genitive singular Latinized form), like Ludovici and Mafei. In addition, there are some unmarked patronyms (like Marcello), and others with the final ending dropped (like Orsin).

Locative bynames are the second most common. They take two forms: the first are formed with da followed by the placename, like da Mosto or da Spin (where the o has been dropped from the placename Spino); the second are formed as adjectives of place, either literal, like Trivisana, or Pisani (which takes the family name form).

Other kinds of bynames are relatively rare, but are frequently used to describe people. Occupational bynames generally agree in gender with the person, though some do not. Examples include Molino; many more are used in descriptions of witnesses in trials, like fornera (baker) and herbardina (herb-seller). Possible descriptive bynames are Malatesta and Verde, though both may also be unmarked patronyms.

There are in this data no examples of people with two bynames. This may reflect the relatively low social status of many of the women discussed (the most common occupation for women discussed here is prostitute), but many wealthy women and men are discussed, and they too have only a single byname.

Names of Venetian Women Recorded Before 1600 (with variants and diminutives indented below the root form)

Names of Venetian Women Recorded Between 1600 and 1650 (and the first date each name was recorded if available)

Names of Foreign Women in Venice

Names of Venetian Men Recorded Before 1600

Names of Venetian Men Recorded Between 1600 and 1650 (and the first date each name was recorded)

Some examples of complete names from this data

Some occupations found in this data (that were not found as bynames):

Strazzaruola (second hand clothes dealer)
Linaruola (linen maker)
Fornera (baker)
Fruttaruola (fruit vendor)
Spiciera (spice vendor)
Barcaruola (boatwoman)
Zavatera (cobbler)
Cassellera (cobbler)
Vellera (sail maker)
Meretrice (prostitute)
Albergatrice (innkeeper)
Furlana (laundress)
Herbardina (herb seller)