28.8.06

L'origine Del Mio Cognome

As the title says (for those of you who don't know Italian - "The origin of my last name"), I have done some research and found out about the origin of my last name "Vicini". While very uncommon in the U.S., the name is an Italian one not Sicilian. This is due to the fact that my nonno was born in Italy but his parents both died and he was moved to Sicily - where the overwhelming majority of my relatives still abide. So, after visiting some Italian websites to read up on my last name I was able to come up with this:

VICINI

Si distribuisce lungo la via Emilia, da Rimini fino a Milano, deriva da un soprannome legato al vocabolo vicino (prossimo o perchè nelle vicinanze, o per affinità), potrebbe in qualche caso derivare dall'aferesi di cognomi come Bonvicini, in molti casi può definire il fatto di essere abitanti di un villaggio da vicus: "...Vicus, ut praedictum est, ipsae habitationes urbis sunt; unde et Vicini dicti....", come si legge nel De aedificiis et agris Isidori Hispalensis Episcopi.

And while I'm sure that means alot to all you non-Italians here is the English translation, more or less:
VICINI

It is distributed along the region Emilia, from Rimini until Milan, derives from a nickname to the word "close" (next to or in the neighborhoods, or for affinity), would be able in some case to be derived from the results of surnames like Bonvicini, in a lot of cases can define the fact of to be inhabitants of a village from vicus: "...Vicus, ut praedictum est, ipsae habitationes urbis sunt; unde et Vicini dicti....", how it would read in the De aedificiis and agris Isidori Hispalensis Episcopi.


Interesting, no?

1 comment:

Michael said...

So, you're Emiliano! I live in Emilia! You should come see the homeland!

Seriously, be thankful your nonno got moved down to Sicily, Emilia is nice, but the food (the much ballyhooed Bolognese cuisine) and the people cannot compare to those of the south, at least to my Calabrese-trained tastes :)

A presto,

- Michael