Message: "-manzo names" - Behind the Name

-manzo names

by RachelChristine (guest)

6/23/2007, 6:58 AM

Does anyone know the origin of names ending in -manzo? We all know Almanzo Wilder, from the Little House books, but I have also run across a Lomanzo (which was Wilder's brother-in-law's middle name) and today a Romanzo from roughly the same time period (probably about 10-15 years earlier). I've always wondered where Wilder's name came from, and have never seen any of these types of names in a name database anywhre.

Thanks!

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- Cleveland Kent Evans (clevelandkentevans) +1

6/23/2007, 8:22 AM

Here is the answer posted to a similar question on this board about three years ago. I can't vouch for its complete accuracy, as it doesn't give sources, but it is obvious from a tiny bit of Googling that Lomanzo is indeed an Italian surname, and that the Arabic origin is the one Wilder's family themselves believed for his name (though of course they didn't have to be right about that.)

http://www.behindthename.com/bb/arcview.php?id=80557&board=gen

"Romanzo" is the Italian word for "novel" (the type of book), just as "Roman" is the German word for "novel". There was an American painter named Edwin Romanzo Elmer who was born in 1850, but he doesn't seem to have regularly used his middle name during his lifetime:

http://www.askart.com/AskART/artists/biography.aspx?artist=26449

The -anzo ending was fashionable in that generation, just as boys' names with two syllables and ending in -n are common today. Certain sounds becoming popular at certain points in history.

- RachelChristine (guest)

6/23/2007, 4:48 PM

Thanks so much! I didn't realize that I'd ever even asked before. I don't remember ever reading the answer.

- Kate

6/23/2007, 8:14 AM

Here's an old post about Almanzo

http://www.behindthename.com/bb/arcview.php?id=22721&board=gen

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