Italian American Name Generator

Italian American names are not the same as Italian names, and the difference is the whole point. Most families arrived between 1880 and 1924 from the South: Naples, Calabria, Sicily, Campania, Abruzzo. Their surnames still reflect that (Esposito, Napolitano, Russo, Scalise, Puglisi, Lo Cascio), but the first names shifted within a generation. Giuseppe became Joseph, Vincenzo became Vincent, Carmine and Rocco survived intact, and Salvatore turned into Sal. Girls named for grandmothers carry Carmela, Concetta, Philomena and Assunta, while their daughters are Gina, Donna, Theresa and Marie.

The surnames themselves were often reshaped at the docks or by schoolteachers. Spaces and apostrophes got squeezed out (D'Angelo to Dangelo, De Luca to DeLuca), capital letters moved (LoBianco, DiMaggio, DelVecchio), and a few names were flattened outright. Double first names like Mary Ann, Rosemarie and Anna Maria are a Catholic hallmark, and the nickname is practically a second given name: nobody in the neighborhood calls Vincent anything but Vinnie.

A convincing Italian American name usually pairs a saint's name or its English form with a Southern surname and, if the character is over forty, a nickname. Anthony Russo, Patsy Lo Giudice and Carmela Ferraro all ring true. Leonardo Ferrari sounds like he still lives in Milan.