Eugene and Virginia - name commonality?

[lyn1982]

How common were the names Eugene and Virginia for Italians born in Italy - not US in the late 1800s. Asking because my ggf's adoptive family and the family I suspect he was born into both used those names before leaving Italy. I'm curious if it could be a link because I have not seen either name in researching any of my other Italian ancestors.

[darkerhorse]

Searching Ancestry.com for exact matches to first name, born in Italy 1880-1900:

Eugenio = 18,231
Virginia = 24,746

by comparison:
Mario = 41,413
Lucia = 46,865

So I would say likely less common, but not uncommon.

Eugenio sounds Northern.

If you have specific geographic areas in mind, results may vary.

[darkerhorse]

Of course, that's anecdotal, not scientific.

But at least those names weren't that rare in Italy at that time.

[lyn1982]

Searching Ancestry.com for exact matches to first name, born in Italy 1880-1900:

Eugenio = 18,231
Virginia = 24,746

by comparison:
Mario = 41,413
Lucia = 46,865

So I would say likely less common, but not uncommon.

Eugenio sounds Northern.

If you have specific geographic areas in mind, results may vary.

It lets you search without a surname? That's cool. Now I'm off to see who named their kids really crazy stuff.

I'll have to check the birth records again for exact spelling on Eugene/Eugenio both have it as Eugene on their trees which probably is incorrect.

[lyn1982]

Thank you - I'm sidetracked now, but this is very amusing - there's some poor kid out there named after both Cersei and Daenerys.

[darkerhorse]

I used "Eugenio" for the test.

Of course, Ancestry is biased: it includes only persons captured on their records, multiple records for the same individual, etc. But I think there's some directional accuracy there, especially for your purpose.

If I recall, I think there was an immigration connection to Niagara Falls from Italy which showed up in a similar test using Ancestry.

[lyn1982]

Is Eugenio not your real name? If you don't have a tree some poor person might be wondering who this (possible close) match is. Like what hows this person a 2nd cousin? You gonna drive someone crazy lol. I've got multiple 2nd cousins I don't recognize that I try and trace sometimes to no avail.

It's not just those names that are similar; they just strike me as more unusual. Basically, it was a requirement for every family to have a Maria or Giuseppe so I don't count names like those lol.

But the man my ggf likely was raised with as a brother named his children Mary, Pauline, Louise, Della, Virginia,
Dominic, Lena, Rose, and Eugene.

My ggf named his kids Maria, Dominic, Angeline, Joseph, Louise, Rose, Virginia

And my ggfs suspected mother Virginia had a sister, Maria, and a brother, Eugene.

My suspicion is the families knew each other through the marriage of Virginia's uncle, and that the Pavias he married into in Agrigento are connected to the Maria Pavia (maiden name) who lived In Alatri - but I can't prove it unless things changed cause there were no records for Alatri to look for her marriage to Domenico Mastracchio.

[darkerhorse]

It's difficult to follow your scenario, but it sure looks like you've caught onto something with common names in the extended family.

[lyn1982]

Yeah sorry, but to simplify - the names in my ggfs and the man he was likely raised with as a brother (going off passenger manifest) in their family that they named their children are Virginia, Maria, and Eugene, just like 3 of the children that I suspect are descended from my ggf's grandparents.

[darkerhorse]

"Eugene" = 2,221

[MarcuccioV]

My 3GGM's first name was Verginia (with an "e"). She was born in 1790. I don't know her birthplace, but she died in Valmontone (Lazio) in 1875...

I also have 3 females in my tree named Eugenia.

[lyn1982]

Thats interesting. I never heard of Virginia being spelled Verginia. Do you think they meant to spell it that way, or just didn't know correct spelling?

[MarcuccioV]

Thats interesting. I never heard of Virginia being spelled Verginia. Do you think they meant to spell it that way, or just didn't know correct spelling?

In the commune records it's spelled both ways (there are quite a few), but much more commonly with the 'e'. I believe that is the correct Italian spelling. Sicilians more commonly use the 'i'.