Germanic names in Italy started to proliferate after the

fall of the Roman Empire The fall of the Western Roman Empire, also called the fall of the Roman Empire or the fall of Rome, was the loss of central political control in the Western Roman Empire, a process in which the Empire failed to enforce its rule, and its vast ...

due to the

Barbarian Invasions The Migration Period ( 300 to 600 AD), also known as the Barbarian Invasions, was a period in European history marked by large-scale migrations that saw the fall of the Western Roman Empire and subsequent settlement of its former territories ...

of 4th-6th centuries. Stephen Wilson, ''The Means Of Naming: A Social and Cultural History of Naming in Western Europe'', Chapter 5 "Germanic Names", Section "Latin to Germanic names"
p. 65
/ref> Early studies of the

Germanic names Germanic languages, Germanic given names are traditionally wikt:dithematic, dithematic; that is, they are formed from two elements (word stem, stems), by joining a prefix and a suffix. For example, Æthelred the Unready, King Æþelred's name was ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

were carried out by German scholars (e.g., Bruckner (1895), and Gamillsсheg 1934 - 1936).

History

The adoption of Germanic names in Italy was less prominent than in

Gaul Gaul () was a region of Western Europe first clearly described by the Roman people, Romans, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, and Northern Italy. It covered an area of . Ac ...

, another part of the Roman Empire conquered by the

Barbarian kingdoms The barbarian kingdoms were states founded by various non-Roman, primarily Germanic, peoples in Western Europe and North Africa following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century CE. The barbarian kingdoms were the princip ...

, and was associated with the

Ostrogoth The Ostrogoths () were a Roman-era Germanic peoples, Germanic people. In the 5th century, they followed the Visigoths in creating one of the two great Goths, Gothic kingdoms within the Western Roman Empire, drawing upon the large Gothic populatio ...

ic and

Lombards The Lombards () or Longobards () were a Germanic peoples, Germanic people who conquered most of the Italian Peninsula between 568 and 774. The medieval Lombard historian Paul the Deacon wrote in the ''History of the Lombards'' (written betwee ...

settlement in Italy. Over time, there was a growing mismatch between the ethnicity and the naming, similar to the Gaul. While initially Gothic names belonged to the Goths, by the 10th century the choice was influenced by the fashion independently of the ethnicity. Often the names were hybrids: German suffixes were added to Roman roots (e.g., Forteramnus =Forte + - ramn + -us) and vice versa (Hrodemia, from

Hroðr Hróðr (Old Norse: "famed") is a female jötunn in Norse mythology, mentioned in the Eddic poem ''Hymiskviða'', in which Thor is referred to as "Hróðr's adversary." But the context is unclear, so the name could equally refer to an otherwise ...

). Eventually Germanic names have become predominant, but did not displace the Latin-language ones completely.

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

has played a considerable role in preservation of the classical Greco-Latin names, related to religious ideas and saints. Even the names of pagan gods were preserved via the name of saints (e.g.,

Mercurius Mercury (; ) is a major god in Religion in ancient Rome, Roman religion and Roman mythology, mythology, being one of the 12 Dii Consentes within the ancient Roman pantheon. He is the god of financial gain, commerce, eloquence, messages, commu ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

) Eventually, in the process of the adoption by non-Germans, Germanic names mutated and became the new names of their own.Wilson
p. 74
/ref>

History

See also

References

Further reading