Immigrant Name Changes

[carubia]

I have to disagree with the professor on Vincenzo to James. Vincent was a perfectly normal, suitable Anglicization for Vincenzo and was frequently used, even in combination with James. I think the usual explanation - due to the similarity of the middle syllable of Vincenzo with James - is the correct one, and the fact that he wasn't aware of that explanation makes me wonder if perhaps he derived his hypothesis about Pasquale to Charles because he couldn't see the connection.

[AngelaGrace56]

It has been interesting reading through this topic. The majority of our Italian immigrants in my town retained their Italian given name. The only ones that were sometimes changed, which have not already been mentioned, were:

Giuseppe – Joe
Michelangelo – Mick or Angelo
Salvatore – Salvi
Giacomo – Jack
Giovanni – Johnny
Vincenzo – Vince
Matteo – Matt (but not Matthew)

Re Vincenzo: Before being a member of this website, I had never heard the name Vincenzo being changed to James. All our Vincenzo's went by either the Italian name Vincenzo or the name was abbreviated to Vince, or, very rarely, Enzo. James – NEVER. I'm wondering whether James for Vincenzo might be isolated to the US and possibly Canada? I personally find it hard to see the connection between the two names. To me they are like chalk and cheese, but then I don't know how these words are pronounced elsewhere. It would be interesting to hear from our forum friends in other English speaking countries like Australia, New Zealand and the UK, as to whether the name Vincenzo was changed to James locally.

Angela

[telesino]

gioacchino - joaquin

[mdavis2509]

In my family the names were changed as such:

Giuseppe = Joseph
Teresa = Theresa
Rosalino = Russell
Pietro = Peter
Isabella = Elizabeth
Gaetana = Agnes

The last one is the one I'm most curious about. All my research suggests that Gaetana should be Ida. Anybody else seen this?

[carubia]

I just did a search through a couple of hundred people named Gaetana in my tree. Among the ones who anglicized their names, I saw Ida, Tillie, Tina, Ethel, Diana, and Anna. Anna was actually the most common anglicization (if you could call it that - wouldn't the anglicization be Anne?). The numbers were small, though.

[D'an Fam]

My ggrandfather was Pietro and changed to Peter.

Is it possible to take an American name and Italian-ize it with new Italian citizenship? My husband is Mark, can he change his name to Marco? We already have an Italian last name. Could I change my American first name to sound more Italian? We plan on retiring in Italy and I'd love to have a more Italian sounding first name. My name is a typical, old American lady name.

[carubia]

Is it possible to take an American name and Italian-ize it with new Italian citizenship? My husband is Mark, can he change his name to Marco?

Has your husband's Italian citizenship already been recognized? If not, he can do a legal name change in the US, have his birth cert amended, and then register under that name in Italy. If he is already recognized, he'd have to apply for a name change in the provincial office that covers where he is registered in Italy. You probably would need to hire a lawyer for that, and you may encounter resistance.

[D'an Fam]

That sounds like too much work lol..

[boozy.bird]

Just out of interest has anyone come across an english name translation for Singetto or Vengesto..... I thought Vengesto may be another translation of Vincent (I know usually Vincenzo, Vincente)

[NancyMagnatta]

In our family the names were changed accordingly:
Nataluccio/Natale
Valleverdina/Dina
Guiseppe/Joseph
Antonio/Anthony/Tony
Evelyn/Eve
Pasquale/Lino
Alberto/Al
Louigi/Louie/Lou

[carubia]

In our family the names were changed accordingly:
Nataluccio/Natale

Is that a surname? Natalucci is a common surname, but Nataluccio is not found in Italy now. Natale is already an Italian given name.

Valleverdina/Dina

Wow, that is rare!

Guiseppe/Joseph

It's Giuseppe.

Evelyn/Eve

Evelyn is English, not Italian.

Pasquale/Lino

Presumably this derived from Pasqualino.

Louigi/Louie/Lou

It's Luigi.

[parkergambino]

Just a few more:
similar to the Vincenzo-> James,
Vincenza ->Jean

Guglielmo -> William

[bbivona]

I'm sorry, carubia, but I hadn't noticed that you had written that your Uncle Charlie was really a Girolamo. My maternal grandmother's brother born in Menfi was a Girolamo. My mom had originally told me that he went by the name Jerome in the U.S., but all of the U.S. records I have found for him say "James" or "Jimmy."

My grandfather was born in Texas of parents from Gibellina, Sicily. Some of his siblings were born in Gibellina and some in Texas. His legal name in the U.S. was James and he went by Jimmy, but in Sicily the relatives call/called him Girolamo.

[NickAndreola]

Some of the names I didn't see listed that I've found 'Americanized' & condensed

Enrichetta = Rita
Giuseppa = Josephine