What is the meaning of the word "Detto"

[PeterTimber]

In fact there are 71 cities,towns and villages mostly in Friuli and Lombardia regions as well as scattered all the way down to Sicily with surname MIO. =Peter=

[liviomoreno]

Ok, I will have to retrieve a copy of the document and post it here next week.

Thank you.

Great! Please post the entire page, this will help to decipher and understand.

[favret]

Here is a copy of the birth certificate. I've marked in red the area that reads: Mio Detto Bertolo Luigia. As I mentioned earlier, I've come across numerous "Mio Detto" plus name on birth certificates.

[favret]

[uantiti]

Hi,
I'll give you my "interpretation"

Bertolo was probably a very common surname in that area, so families were given a nickname or two to distinguish them. The word "Detto" should stand for "also known as". Today the word "Detto" between the surnames has disappeared and the surnames are together, so you will find people with surname "Mio Bertolo" and also people with three surnames.

Hope this will help you.

Regards Ada

[favret]

Thank you Ada.

[nuccia]

Hi,
I'll give you my "interpretation"

Bertolo was probably a very common surname in that area, so families were given a nickname or two to distinguish them. The word "Detto" should stand for "also known as". Today the word "Detto" between the surnames has disappeared and the surnames are together, so you will find people with surname "Mio Bertolo" and also people with three surnames.

Hope this will help you.

Regards Ada

Great interpretation. Another example: I looked for my great great grandfather's birth and marriage acts. He is listed on his children's birth acts as Giuseppe. I found on his marriage and death act that his name was actually Domenico detto Giuseppe. Same with my grandfather..Always knew him as Bruno but his real name was Francesco, detto Bruno.

[favret]

So Domenico would be his given name and Giuseppe a nickname. I assume the nickname was given by the immediate family..

Was this common in all of Italy or North only?

[favret]

I also came across this with surnames only.

What makes no sense to me in the case of "Mio detto Bertolo" is that Bertolo was more common than Mio where I was born. Why would they specifically choose Bertolo?

[nuccia]

So Domenico would be his given name and Giuseppe a nickname. I assume the nickname was given by the immediate family..

Was this common in all of Italy or North only?

I think this happened all over Italy.

[uantiti]

I also came across this with surnames only.

What makes no sense to me in the case of "Mio detto Bertolo" is that Bertolo was more common than Mio where I was born. Why would they specifically choose Bertolo?

I apologize, I got confused with the two surnames, I meant that Mio was probably a very common surname and Bertolo was the nickname.
Nicknames were given unofficially according to an occupation or physical peculiarity (color of hair, left handed, short, fat, etc.) or referring to an ancestor name or to a place they were from. This was necessary due to the fact that families used to have a lot of children who on their turn were going to have a lot of children and so on. In addition, people use to give the ancestors names to their children, the result was a remarkable number of homonimies. At the end it became necessary to officialize the nicknames.
In the town of Chioggia, near Venice, they recently had to officialize nicknames by decree as there were thousand of people with same name and family name.

Ada

[elba]

For what it's worth - my 2cents....

In the particular case in point here - 'Mio detto (known as) Bartolo' - it is most likely that there were , as suggested many with the surname Mio in that town (probably in or around Pordenone), and this particular Mio came from the nearby town of San Bartolo - so to distinguish him from all the other Mio's he was called 'Mio known as Bartolo'.

The same system is used in my village where 80% of the inhabitants carry the name Acquistapace. They are, I presume, from several strands of the original (ancient) family. But even today a number of them are introduced as Acquistapace - detto - XXXXX.

[favret]

Very interesting.

Thank you very much.