Knowing your relative’s name in his/her original language is very important. Before you start searching old records, take the time to determine the right name, including its correct spelling. Below is a list of  Sicilian/Italian names, and a pronunciation guide, with the English equivalents.  The emphasized syllable is shown in CAPITALS in this guide.  Note that vowels in both the Sicilian and Italian languages have the following sounds: A is “ah” or "uh"; E is “eh” (“long a”); I is “ee”; O is “oh” (“long o), and U is “oo” (like the "oo" in "foot", or the "oo" in "boot"). “ A, E, I, O, U” in Italian is “ah, eh, ee, oh, oo”!!  The English sound of I (“long i” as in “eye”) is given by the combination “ai” in Sicilian or Italian.   Sicilian/Italian have no letter "k", "y" or "w".  They have a letter written like "j", but this "j" is actually a form of the letter "i", and is pronounced as we would pronounce "y" in English.

       There is a difference between the translation of a name, and the substitution for a name.  A translation is the literal meaning of a word or name in one language, as expressed in another language.   A substitution is the conversion of a name in one language to a name in another language, often with a completely different meaning and with unusual results.  Many other names were translated literally. Thus, Filippo (fee-LEE-poh) became Philip and Michele (mee-KEH-leh) is Michael.  Many novice researchers ask "What is the English translation of the Sicilian name _______?"  But names were not always translated literally, and sometimes there was simply no translation.  Often, names were 'Anglicized', that is, modified by American clerks, employers or neighbors: that is, they were 'converted' into a more recognizable, pronounceable or socially acceptable name.

      A very common example is the given name Vincenzo, whose meaning is 'victor'.  The name would be properly translated as Victor or Vincent.  But when Vincenzo said his name, it sounded, to 'Anglo' ears, like veen-CHAINS-oh or veen-JANES-oh.  Americans, hearing the emphasized syllable, then converted Vincenzo to James.

       Felice (feh-LEE-cheh) means Happy (literal translation: Felix), but often in America it was translated as Phil or Philip. The meaning of of Fortunato (for-too-NAH-toh) is Lucky.  So Lucky isn't a 'nickname', it's the literal translation of the Sicilian name.   However the American substitution was sometimes Nat or Nate, or even Frank, simply because Frank starts with the letter 'F'. Sometimes the name was too difficult for Americans to pronounce, or one syllable of the name was prominent and became the basis for the name in English, as in James for Vincenzo and Guy or Tom for Gaetano. Sometimes the person was given a nickname and the nickname was later transmuted into a completely different name. Barbaro (BAR-buh-roh) became Bob, which then became Robert, and Alfonso became Al, which became Albert. Diego (dee-AY-goh) became Dick, which became Richard, etc. 

        Two very common Sicilian given names are Calogero and Salvatore (Salvaturi or Sarbaturi).  Calogero is from the Greek "kalos geron", meaning "good elder".  The name, being difficult to pronounce and not very amenable to accurate translation, often was simplified in the U. S. to Charley, which then was modified to Charles or Carl.  The feminine form, Calogera, was changed to Carrie and then often to Caroline.  This is also a case where the shortened Sicilian name or family endearment, rather than the given name, was Americanized: short for Calogera is Lilla in Sicily.  That gets morphed to Lily or Lillian in the U. S.  Salvatore means "savior", again not amenable to translation.  Often in the U. S., it was shortened to Sal, or Torey, but just as often to Sam, which then was assumed to be Samuel, a different name entirely.  The feminine form of Salvatore is Salvatrice, which got changed to Sally, Sarah, or Teresa in the U. S., or for inexplicable reasons, to Kate!

       In Italian, as in many languages, male and female names have different endings, signifying gender. This USUALLY means the man’s name ends in “o” and the woman’s in “a”, e.g.: Angelo and Angela; Vincenzo and Vincenza; Pietro and Pietra, etc.  Exceptions to this rule include: Giovanni and Giovanna; Michele and Michela; and Felice and Felicia.  Other exceptions include Andrea (Andrew), which is from the Greek root 'andros', meaning 'man'.  Andrea means 'manly', and in Sicily and Italy it was exclusively a man's name: the feminine form would be Andreana. Another exception is Nicolá (Nicholas), a variant of which is Nicoló.  The feminine form of Nicolá or Nicoló is Nicolina.

        A common Sicilian/Italian given name is Giuseppe, (Joseph, in English and in church Latin), pronounced joo-SEH-ppeh.  This and its feminine form Giuseppa are probably the most misspelled given names by modern English-speaking translators and indexers.  The reason is that in script, the dot over the letter "i" is often not clearly over it, and transcribers transpose the "i" and the "u", resulting in the misspelling "Guiseppe" a nonsensical name that would be pronounced gwee-SEH-ppeh.  The same error (by transcribers/indexers, not in the original documents) is often made with the given names Giusto and Giustino, and in surnames such as Giunta, Giudice, Giumento, etc.  If searching indexed or transcribed records, this necessitates searching not only by the correct spelling, but with the incorrect spelling as well.

       The tables below are a general guide.  There are limitless possibilities for the Anglicization of Sicilian/Italian names, especially since in many cases, the first letter of the 'foreign' name was simply used as the first letter of a completely different 'American' name.  And in some cases the 'foreign' name was completely abandoned for names like 'Bud' or 'Jack'.
 

For a one-to-one comparison of
Sicilian/Italian masculine and feminine given names,
including additional names, click HERE.

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