Do you have an unusual Italian surname, one you never find anywhere else? Does it end in “-i”, and does your family come from Livorno (Leghorn)? Then it may all have begun with a baby left at the foundling wheel, and with someone who invented that surname especially for them.

From “Innocenti” to imagination

For centuries abandoned children in Tuscany were given a surname that marked them for life: Degli Innocenti, Innocenti, Nocentini and their variants. It was a label that told everyone where you came from. The same happened elsewhere in Italy: Naples had its Esposito, Rome its Proietti.

In 1817 the rule changed. Tuscan foundlings began to receive an imaginary surname, similar to those of “ordinary” families. A new name, with no stigma, for a new life.

Everybody’s godfather

In Livorno this task fell almost always to the same man. Giovacchino Parenti, a Florentine, was the porter of the women’s hospital of Santa Barbara della Misericordia. From 1816 until a few days before his death in April 1847 he stood as godfather to almost every abandoned baby in the city. His wife, Maria Anna Dazzi, was the keeper of the wheel: she was the one who received the children. We told his story in an article in 2019 (in Italian).

Now and then someone else stood in for him. Bartolommeo Pisani, for example, was godfather 58 times. But the “professional godfather” was Parenti.

4,100 children, 3,739 surnames

We have analysed every foundling registered in Livorno between 1817 and 1847: there are 4,100 of them, boys and girls in almost equal numbers (2,069 and 2,031). The different surnames number 3,739. In practice, a new one was invented for almost every baby.

97% end in “-i”, like most Tuscan surnames: Rincorsi, Perlustri, Mescolanti, Tardelli. That is exactly why the exceptions stand out: Pietradura, Gambacorta, Bonasorte, Contessa, Pavone, Del Pesce, Redento. There are old-fashioned spellings too, such as Callaj and Trapezzj. After 1839 even foreign surnames appear: Marbach, De la Tour, Gomez Butler.

And the old tradition did not disappear altogether: Innocenti remains the most frequent surname, given to 12 children. Then come Incognito (5) and Benvenuti, “welcome” (4), followed by Celesti, Lieti, Solenni: surnames that sound like a blessing.

Surnames like little pictures

Many surnames are compounds that read like tiny scenes: Chiusalupi (“shut-the-wolves”), Cantamerli (“sing-the-blackbirds”), Spagliagrani, Millefiori (“a thousand flowers”), Portapani (“bread-bearer”), Puntagalli, Diotisalvi (“God save you”). Some themes keep coming back:

• flowers and lilies: Tragigli, Belgigliotti, Fioracci;
• wolves: Rivalupi, Lupinotti;
• mountains: Montesoli, Caramonti;
• bread and sweets: Pandolci, Pandori, Farinacci;
• the dinner table: Minestri (“soups”), Salmari, Melarei.

One day in 1818 two babies arrived at the wheel. One was named Collegalli, the other Chiusalupi. It is hard not to picture the godfather smiling as he wrote them down one after the other.

Twins: names in pairs

Among the foundlings there are 28 pairs of twins, and their names are almost always thought out together. Twice they are called Cosimo and Damiano, like the twin saints: one pair receives the surname Gemelli (“twins”), the other Pratelli, which sounds almost like fratelli, “brothers”. Other pairs are Raffaello and Gabbriello, like the archangels, and Pietro and Paolina.

When they are a boy and a girl, they often share the same name: Vittorio and Vittoria, Costantino and Costanza, Eliseo and Elisa. Other times the names rhyme: Orazio and Pancrazio, Giuliano and Mamiliano.

The first name? Ask the calendar

For the baptismal name the godfather always had help at hand: the saint of the day. The data show it clearly:

• of 13 boys named Martino, 9 arrived in November;
• of 22 named Stefano, 10 arrived in December, around St Stephen’s Day;
• of 27 girls named Chiara, 14 arrived in August, around St Clare’s feast;
• the Giuseppes cluster around 19 March, the Lorenzos in August, the Francescos in early October.

Alessio even has two peaks, in February and July: the two feasts of the saint.

Sometimes the surname echoes the first name: Teodoro Teodori, Onorato Onorati, Ilario Ilarioni, Reparata Reparati. In the 1840s, on the other hand, first names grow longer: in 1842 one baby girl received six of them, Pia Maria Anna Giuseppa Luisa Adele Patriarcali. Meanwhile the surnames grow shorter, from an average of over seven letters to six.

Why it matters today

Many of those children died young, as sadly often happened. Others grew up, married, had children and passed on that invented surname. So a name born of a moment’s fancy can come down to us, carried by families who have no idea where it came from.

For genealogists a foundling looks like a brick wall: the parents are unknown. But the family story does not end there. From the wheel we can follow the child through life: who they were entrusted to, whom they married, where their children were born.

Search for your surname

LivornoGen’s Search for your family engine includes the full list of Livorno foundlings from 1817 to 1847. If your surname is there, your family’s story might begin right at the wheel of Santa Barbara.