Germanic names in Italy

Germanic names in Italy started to proliferate after the fall of the Roman Empire due to the Barbarian Invasions of 4th-6th centuries.[1] [2]

Early studies of the Germanic names in Italy were carried out by German scholars (e.g., Bruckner (1895),[3] and Gamillsсheg[4] 1934 - 1936). [5]

History

The adoption of Germanic names in Italy was less prominent than in Gaul, another part of the Roman Empire conquered by the Barbarian kingdoms, and was associated with the Ostrogothic and Lombards settlement in Italy. Over time, there was a growing mismatch between the ethnicity and the naming, similar to the Gaul. While initially Gothic names belonged to the Goths, by the 10th century the choice was influenced by the fashion independently of the ethnicity. Often the names were hybrids: German suffixes were added to Roman roots (e.g., Forteramnus =Forte + -ramn + -us) and vice versa (Hrodemia, from Hroðr). Eventually Germanic names have become predominant, but did not displace the Latin-language ones completely.[6] Christianity has played a considerable role in preservation of the classical Greco-Latin names, related to religious ideas and saints. Even the names of pagan gods were preserved via the name of saints (e.g., Mercurius, Victoria)[7] Eventually, in the process of the adoption by non-Germans, Germanic names mutated and became the new names of their own.[8]

See also

References
  1. Stephen Wilson, The Means Of Naming: A Social and Cultural History of Naming in Western Europe, Chapter 5 "Germanic Names", Section "Latin to Germanic names", p. 65
  2. Patrick Amory, People and Identity in Ostrogothic Italy, 489-554, 2003, ISBN 0521526353, Chapter 3: Individual Reactions to Ideology I: Names, Language and Profession, pp. 86-108 (first edition: 1997 ISBN 0 521 57151 0)
  3. Bruckner, Wilhelm (1895). Die Sprache der Langobarden, Quellen und Forschungen zur Sprach- und Culturgeschichte der germanischen Völker, 75. Strassburg: Karl J. Trübner.
  4. Ernst Gamillsсheg, "Romania Germanica. Sprach- und Siedlungsgeschichte der Germanen af dem Boden des alten Rommerreichs", as cited in a lengthy review by G.W.S. Friedrichsen in Medium Ævum, Vol. 6, 1937, p.40
  5. Richard Hodges, San Vincenzo Al Volturno: The Finds from the 1980-86 excavations pt.1-2, 2001, (Archaeological monographs of the British School at Rome ; no. 7, etc. Volume 3, Part 1 of San Vincenzo Al Volturno), p.124 (first edition: 1993)
  6. Wilson, p. 68
  7. Wilson, p. 69
  8. Wilson, p. 74

Further reading
  • Jonathan J. Arnold, Shane Bjornlie, Kristina Sessa (editors and contributors), A Companion to Ostrogothic Italy, 2016, ISBN 9004315934, 564 pp.
  • Joseph G. Fucilla, Our Italian Surnames, 1987, ISBN 0806311878, 299pp.
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