Woman using two surnames??

[Storia]

On an 1834 "Atto Della Solenne Promessa di celebrare il Matriomonio" from a Sicilian comune I have found the name of the bride-to-be listed as:

Francesca Paola Cerami Agnello

She is listed as 32 years old.
Her father is simply identified as "fù Domenico"

She is the mother of my ancestor. Please note that the civil record for the "Atto Di Nascita" for this male baby shows his birth was reported by the midwife? (levatrice) on April 11, 1832. The mother is named as

Francesca Paola Cerami

The report of a subsequent baby born to this couple in 1837 lists the mother as:

Francesca Paola Cerami Agnello

I have two questions - 1- what is the significance of the woman's double name? and 2 - does this mean the couple was married in a church ceremony before the birth of their first child? or not married until the civil record of 1834?

Thank you for your responses!!

[liviomoreno]

It is very likely that the couple was married in a church and after the birth of their child they married with a civil ceremony.
The info you provide are not sufficient to explain the double surname.

[johnnyonthespot]

Her father is simply identified as "fù Domenico"

"Fu" as I learned recently means "deceased".

Also, since Italian women keep their maiden name for life, I don't think the mother's marital state would be an issue in regards to the way her name is listed on a birth act. In the Italian system, "Mary Jones" is always Mary Jones, no matter how many times she may have married, church or civil, and when she gives birth you would expect to see her listed in just that manner, Mary Jones.

I wonder if perhaps since her father, Domenico, was deceased, perhaps her mother re-married and thus the daughter now has two surnames, that of her natural father and also that of her step-father? Livio, would it work that way?

[liviomoreno]

I don't think so.

[Storia]

I am the original poster of this message.

Now I am thinking that Agnello is a nickname to distinguish from other babies named Francesca Paola Cerami (there are many Cerami families in this small Sicilian town).

Could "Agnello" be the disguishing nickname? wordreference.com translated the word to "lamb", which sounds like a good nickname for a little girl. or maybe it was applied to the family before her birth, ie. to her father and became part of the family name?

Here is why I think this. I just remembered reading something about the use of two surnames and have copied here a post from this forum from June 2008:

uantiti
Elite
Registrado: Jun 11, 2008
Mensajes: 291
Ubicación: Italy: Biella (Piedmont) & Venezia
Publicado: Thu Jun 11, 2009 10:08 am Asunto: Re: Double Italian surnames -- what is the reason?

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Hi,
in Piedmont and in Northern Italy many people, especially in small villages have double surnames for the simple reason that they all have the same first surname. The second surname comes usually from a nickname given in the past to distinguish a family from another. In the years those nicknames became official as there were too many people with same name and same surname born in the same year and sometimes on same month and day. Very often nicknames were dialect words and were based on an occupation, a physical peculiarity, the place they had their house or were simply nicknames given for some unknown reason. Sometimes second surnames could have been the result of adding the maternal surname to avoid homonymies.
My maternal grandmother had a nickname meaning that her family was from a place near a canebrake.
I don't know if this was also the practice in Southern Italy.

I forgot to add that I'm from Piemonte.

Hope this helps.

Ada

Volver arriba

[nazca]

hi,
can i ask you the name of the comune in Sicily? About your question (i have a similar situation in my genealogy) i think that "especially in small villages have double surnames for the simple reason that they all have the same first surname" is the possible answer

best regards

[rp76226]

Do you know the parents of Francesca Paola Cerami? Was the comune Cerda?