Turco's Personal Name List

Originally a short form of Germanic names such as Adelaide or Adelina that begin with the element adal meaning "noble". Saint Ada was a 7th-century Frankish abbess at Le Mans. This name was also borne by Augusta Ada King (1815-1852), the Countess of Lovelace (known as Ada Lovelace), a daughter of Lord Byron. She was an assistant to Charles Babbage, the inventor of an early mechanical computer.

Italian form of Alexander. A famous bearer was Alessandro Volta (1745-1827), the Italian physicist who invented the battery.

Spanish form of Amadeus, as well as an Italian variant. This was the name of a 19th-century king of Spain (born in Italy).

Feminine form of Angelus (see Angel). As an English name, it came into use in the 18th century. A notable bearer is the former German chancellor Angela Merkel (1954-).

Italian, Spanish and Portuguese form of Anselm.

From the Late Latin name Calogerus meaning "beautiful elder", from Greek καλός (kalos) meaning "beautiful" and γέρων (geron) meaning "old man, elder". This was the name of a 5th-century saint, a hermit of Sicily.

Italian form of Clara. Saint Chiara (commonly called Clare in English) was a follower of Saint Francis of Assisi.

Feminine form of Claudius. It is mentioned briefly in the New Testament. As a Christian name it was very rare until the 16th century.

Italian form of Conrad. This was a 14th-century saint from Piacenza, Italy.

Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan and Romanian form of Christina.

Italian form of Heinrich (see Henry). Enrico Fermi (1901-1954) was an Italian physicist who did work on the development of the nuclear bomb.

Italian form of Fabricius (see Fabrice).

Italian and Spanish form of Flavius.

Italian and Catalan feminine form of Franciscus (see Francis).

Italian form of Iacomus (see James). Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) was an Italian composer of operas.

Combination of Gianni and Battista, given in honour of Saint John the Baptist.

Combination of Gianni and Carlo.

Combination of Gianni and Maria.

Italian form of Iohannes (see John). This name has been very common in Italy since the late Middle Ages, as with other equivalents of John in Europe. The Renaissance writer Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375), the painter Giovanni Bellini (1430-1516) and the painter and sculptor Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) were famous bearers of the name.

Means "grace" in Italian, making it a cognate of Grace.

Feminine form of Livius. This was the name of the wife of the Roman emperor Augustus, Livia Drusilla.

Italian form of Marcellus.

Italian form of Maximus.

Italian, Spanish and Portuguese form of Maurus.

This name was used in this spelling by William Shakespeare for a character in his comedy Twelfth Night (1602). This was a rare name in Shakespeare's time [1] that may have been based on Oliva or Oliver, or directly from the Latin word oliva meaning "olive". In the play Olivia is a noblewoman who is wooed by Duke Orsino but instead falls in love with his messenger Cesario, who is actually Viola in disguise.

Olivia has been used in the English-speaking world since the 18th century, though it did not become overly popular until the last half of the 20th century. Its rise in popularity in the 1970s may have been inspired by a character on the television series The Waltons (1972-1982) [2] or the singer Olivia Newton-John (1948-2022). In 1989 it was borne by a young character on The Cosby Show, which likely accelerated its growth. It reached the top rank in England and Wales by 2008 and in the United States by 2019.

A famous bearer was the British-American actress Olivia de Havilland (1916-2020).

Italian form of Horatius.

Italian form of Roland, as used in the epic poems Orlando Innamorato (1483) by Matteo Maria Boiardo and the continuation Orlando Furioso (1532) by Ludovico Ariosto. In the poems, Orlando is a knight in Charlemagne's army who battles against the invading Saracens. A character in Shakespeare's play As You Like It (1599) also bears this name, as does a city in Florida.

Italian form of Octavia.

Italian, Portuguese and Spanish form of Renatus.

Italian cognate of Salvador.

Italian and Spanish form of Sergius.

Italian and Spanish form of Silvius.

Italian form of the Roman cognomen Titianus, which was derived from the Roman praenomen Titus. A famous bearer was the Venetian Renaissance painter Tiziano Vecellio (1488-1576), known in English as Titian.

Feminine form of Valerius. This was the name of a 2nd-century Roman saint and martyr.

From the Germanic name Waltheri meaning "power of the army", from the elements walt "power, authority" and heri "army". In medieval German tales (notably Waltharius by Ekkehard of Saint Gall) Walter of Aquitaine is a heroic king of the Visigoths. The name was also borne by an 11th-century French saint, Walter of Pontoise. The Normans brought it to England, where it replaced the Old English cognate Wealdhere.

A famous bearer of the name was the English courtier, poet and explorer Walter Raleigh (1552-1618). It was also borne by Walter Scott (1771-1832), a Scottish novelist who wrote Ivanhoe and other notable works.