Italian Renaissance Name Generator

Italian Renaissance names, roughly 1350 to 1600, look different from modern Italian names because hereditary surnames were still settling into place. A person was usually identified by a given name plus something that told you who they were: a patronymic (Donato di Niccolò, son of Niccolò), a hometown (Leonardo da Vinci, Antonello da Messina), a family or clan name marked with de' or degli (Lorenzo de' Medici, Isotta degli Atti), or a nickname that stuck (Botticelli means little barrel, Masaccio means clumsy Tom, il Sodoma was a taunt Bazzi adopted). Artists were often known by their master or workshop, which is why Verrocchio's pupils are all named after places and fathers.

Given names were overwhelmingly saintly and civic. Giovanni, Francesco, Piero, Antonio, Lorenzo, and Cosimo dominated men's names in Florence; women were often Lucrezia, Ginevra, Caterina, Isabella, Bianca, Costanza, and Maddalena. Great families recycled the same names generation after generation, so a Lorenzo di Piero di Cosimo de' Medici carries three ancestors in his name. Titles like Ser (notary), Fra (friar), and Messer (gentleman) preceded the name in documents.

The list mixes real Medici, Sforza, Este, Borgia, and Gonzaga figures with the artists, humanists, condottieri, and merchants of the era, plus period-correct invented names for original characters.