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hetalia2010-11-28 06:03 pm
jjblue1.livejournal.com) wrote in hetalia2010-11-28 06:03 pm
Entry tags:
South Italy Romano human name
Okay, many could have already heard that Lovino isn't an Italian name, at best it's an Italian surname.
In the belief it could have been an Italian name in the past and that was why it was used for Romano, I've researched about it on all the webs and books about names I could find.
All I was able to find out was that 'Lovinum' (derived by a Medieval variation of a Latin word meaning 'small wolf') had been used as a city name and 'Lovinus' (meaning 'Man from Lovinum') had been used as nickname for a painter. Since it wouldn't be the first time people get their name from the name of a city, I thought it was possible in the past people used it as a name also and I stopped here.
In this discussion however, people poined out that they had met Lovinos out of Italy and that, on English webs, is also reported the existence of the name 'Lovina' (while it's harder to track the name 'Lovino' down, unless they mention it as male form of Lovina), with the meaning of 'mother of Romans'.
Out of curiosity I checked this source.
Lovino/Lovina are English variants of Lavinio/Lavinia, which are Italian names of Etruscan origins.
The Etruscan meaning got lost, the latin meaning is 'person who comes from Lavinium'.
Lavinium (which has disappeared by now and was in the area of Pomezia) was the city founded by Aeneas and named after the woman he married. Since, according to the myth, Lavinia and Aeneas are the ones who gave birth to the ancestors of the first king of Rome, Romolus and his brother Remus but also of Julius Caesar and Augustus, you can stretch its meaning to 'mother of the Romans'.
Now... Lavinia and Lavinio (celebrated November the 1st because there's not a saint with either of the names) are Italians names but, even if still used, not very popular.
In Italian webs and books there's no mention they have/had as variants Lovino/Lovina (which, as far as I know, aren't used in Italy at all), at best we gets as possible Italian variants Lavino/Lavina (which are mentioned in Italian books/webs about names but seem to be used even less than Lavinio/Lavinia). It's possible that those variants fell out of use or, more likely, Lovino/Lovina are variants used by foreigners only.
Still, that's the best explanation about why Himaruya picked up the name Lovino so far.
It's derivated by a name with clear Italian origins, with an assumed meaning that is very interesting and fitting. It also might have ended up on a list of names he might have checked and he might have exchanged it for a name used in Italy.
So, as of now, Lovino is still not an Italian name, just the foreign version of an Italian one but, well, at least it isn't a name he made up or a name with no connection whatsoever to Italy.
Anyone else has suggestions?
PS: I found more info about Lovina since it seems more popular than Lovino. The girl name Lovina is used mostly in English and, in English, should be pronounced as Lahviynah (L as in "lee (L.IY)"; AH as in "hut (HH.AH.T)"; V as in "vee (V.IY)"; IY as in "eat (IY.T)"; N as in "knee (N.IY)"; AH as in "hut (HH.AH.T)"). It is of Latin origin. Lovina is a form of the English, German, and Italian name Lavinia.
Lovina is rare as a baby girl name. At the peak of its usage in 1903, 0.006% of baby girls were named Lovina. It had a ranking of #886 then. The baby name has dropped in popularity since then, and is currently used on a very modest scale. Out of all girl names in its family, Lovina was nevertheless the most widely used in 2009.
The following are English derivates for the name Lovina: Lavena, Lavenah, Lavania, Lavaniah, Lavenia, Laveniah, Laviniah, Lavinie, Lavyna, Lavynah, Lavyne, Lavyni, Lavynia, Lavyniah, Lavyny, Lavynya, Lavynyah, Levenia, Leveniah, Levina, Levinia, Leviniah, Livinia, Liviniah, Louvenia, Louvinia, Louviniah, Lovinah, Lovinia, Loviniah, Lovynia, Lovyniah, Luvena, Luvenia, Luvina, Luvinia and Vinnie.
Warning: None of the overmentioned derivated is considered an Italian name.
In Japanese Lovino's name is written ロヴィーノ, which can be translitterated also as Rovino,Robino and Lobino [Uhm... I've been told it's impossible to translitterate ロヴィーノ as Robino/Lobino... forgive me for the mistake, I fail at Japanese] but none of them is an Italian name. If Himaruya wanted to go for a name (and, as far as I know, he used a real name and not a random word for all the other characters) he wouldn't have picked up any of them.
Just in case you're interested Rovino, Robino and Lobino are 3 Italian words.
Lobino means 'small lobe' (lobo + ino). It's however hard an Italian would use it...
Robino means 'small object' (roba + ino). Again it's not usually used.
Rovino might means 'small bramble' (rovo + ino) which again is not usually used or 'I ruin (something)' which, of course, isn't a noun but a verb. The noun 'ruin' in Italian is 'Rovina' and, of course, it isn't used as a name.
Although fans are fond of considering this last idea as the reason behind Lovino's name I think it's much easier Himaruya, as he did for the other characters, went searching for a human name (possibly with an interesting meaning) for South Italy and not for a random Italian world.
Ergo, he either went for Lovino as derivate of 'Lavinio' or with Lovino as derivate of 'small wolf' (it's not so easy to find but, if you're a fan of Italian painters you might find a painter that used it as nickname and find also what it means).
[the suffix ino means little. However when it's added to some words it gives them a 'cute' meaning or imply they're something amazingly small. With others instead it's perfectly normal to add it [es: Tavolo/Tavolino (table/small table)]. It can also turn names into pet names[es: Michele/Michelino (Michele/little Michele). More often than not pet names aren't given names but names used by relatives, friends and, sometimes, co-workers to call you (Actually it's still possible to call someone with a pet name like 'Michelino' or meet someone who had been called 'Michelino' but it's not that common in most cases... it's easier if you're a female... es: Rosa/Rosina, Angela/Angelina)].
Since someone seems wondering about this... Vargas isn't just a Spanish surname it's also a south Italian surname popular in the area around Caserta. Its origins are from a Visigoth word meaning 'good father'. In the far past Visigoths invaded south Italy as well as Spanish people did much after, so it's unknown due to whom of the two the surname diffused in south Italy (my best pick would be Spain but I might be wrong).
Sure enough, since it's so Spanish sounding and so little diffused it doesn't really feel as representative of Italy.
Many Italians had never heard it and, if Italians never heard it, I guess it's even harder for foreigners to meet an Italian with that surname.
According to the Pagine Bianche (the list of all the Italian telephone numbers) they have 249 Vargas registred.
It could be that Himaruya picked it up because he was searching for something with ties with Spain to reinforce the Romano/Spain connection.
Also... I didn't know about this but I've just found out it seems in Italy we've more than 350.000 surnames and we're among the countries with more surnames in the world... According to some official data, if you pick all the Italian people with the 10 more popular surnames, you would only cover up the 1% of the national population...
If you're curious Italian surnames have assorted origins (people's names, places' names, jobs, nicknames...) and most of them had birth in middle age. The article I've been reading said it's easy to track down from where a person come from if you know his surname... I'm sure this was true in the past but, as of now I'm not so sure it's so easy...
In the belief it could have been an Italian name in the past and that was why it was used for Romano, I've researched about it on all the webs and books about names I could find.
All I was able to find out was that 'Lovinum' (derived by a Medieval variation of a Latin word meaning 'small wolf') had been used as a city name and 'Lovinus' (meaning 'Man from Lovinum') had been used as nickname for a painter. Since it wouldn't be the first time people get their name from the name of a city, I thought it was possible in the past people used it as a name also and I stopped here.
In this discussion however, people poined out that they had met Lovinos out of Italy and that, on English webs, is also reported the existence of the name 'Lovina' (while it's harder to track the name 'Lovino' down, unless they mention it as male form of Lovina), with the meaning of 'mother of Romans'.
Out of curiosity I checked this source.
Lovino/Lovina are English variants of Lavinio/Lavinia, which are Italian names of Etruscan origins.
The Etruscan meaning got lost, the latin meaning is 'person who comes from Lavinium'.
Lavinium (which has disappeared by now and was in the area of Pomezia) was the city founded by Aeneas and named after the woman he married. Since, according to the myth, Lavinia and Aeneas are the ones who gave birth to the ancestors of the first king of Rome, Romolus and his brother Remus but also of Julius Caesar and Augustus, you can stretch its meaning to 'mother of the Romans'.
Now... Lavinia and Lavinio (celebrated November the 1st because there's not a saint with either of the names) are Italians names but, even if still used, not very popular.
In Italian webs and books there's no mention they have/had as variants Lovino/Lovina (which, as far as I know, aren't used in Italy at all), at best we gets as possible Italian variants Lavino/Lavina (which are mentioned in Italian books/webs about names but seem to be used even less than Lavinio/Lavinia). It's possible that those variants fell out of use or, more likely, Lovino/Lovina are variants used by foreigners only.
Still, that's the best explanation about why Himaruya picked up the name Lovino so far.
It's derivated by a name with clear Italian origins, with an assumed meaning that is very interesting and fitting. It also might have ended up on a list of names he might have checked and he might have exchanged it for a name used in Italy.
So, as of now, Lovino is still not an Italian name, just the foreign version of an Italian one but, well, at least it isn't a name he made up or a name with no connection whatsoever to Italy.
Anyone else has suggestions?
PS: I found more info about Lovina since it seems more popular than Lovino. The girl name Lovina is used mostly in English and, in English, should be pronounced as Lahviynah (L as in "lee (L.IY)"; AH as in "hut (HH.AH.T)"; V as in "vee (V.IY)"; IY as in "eat (IY.T)"; N as in "knee (N.IY)"; AH as in "hut (HH.AH.T)"). It is of Latin origin. Lovina is a form of the English, German, and Italian name Lavinia.
Lovina is rare as a baby girl name. At the peak of its usage in 1903, 0.006% of baby girls were named Lovina. It had a ranking of #886 then. The baby name has dropped in popularity since then, and is currently used on a very modest scale. Out of all girl names in its family, Lovina was nevertheless the most widely used in 2009.
The following are English derivates for the name Lovina: Lavena, Lavenah, Lavania, Lavaniah, Lavenia, Laveniah, Laviniah, Lavinie, Lavyna, Lavynah, Lavyne, Lavyni, Lavynia, Lavyniah, Lavyny, Lavynya, Lavynyah, Levenia, Leveniah, Levina, Levinia, Leviniah, Livinia, Liviniah, Louvenia, Louvinia, Louviniah, Lovinah, Lovinia, Loviniah, Lovynia, Lovyniah, Luvena, Luvenia, Luvina, Luvinia and Vinnie.
Warning: None of the overmentioned derivated is considered an Italian name.
In Japanese Lovino's name is written ロヴィーノ, which can be translitterated also as Rovino,
Just in case you're interested Rovino, Robino and Lobino are 3 Italian words.
Robino means 'small object' (roba + ino). Again it's not usually used.
Rovino might means 'small bramble' (rovo + ino) which again is not usually used or 'I ruin (something)' which, of course, isn't a noun but a verb. The noun 'ruin' in Italian is 'Rovina' and, of course, it isn't used as a name.
Although fans are fond of considering this last idea as the reason behind Lovino's name I think it's much easier Himaruya, as he did for the other characters, went searching for a human name (possibly with an interesting meaning) for South Italy and not for a random Italian world.
Ergo, he either went for Lovino as derivate of 'Lavinio' or with Lovino as derivate of 'small wolf' (it's not so easy to find but, if you're a fan of Italian painters you might find a painter that used it as nickname and find also what it means).
[the suffix ino means little. However when it's added to some words it gives them a 'cute' meaning or imply they're something amazingly small. With others instead it's perfectly normal to add it [es: Tavolo/Tavolino (table/small table)]. It can also turn names into pet names[es: Michele/Michelino (Michele/little Michele). More often than not pet names aren't given names but names used by relatives, friends and, sometimes, co-workers to call you (Actually it's still possible to call someone with a pet name like 'Michelino' or meet someone who had been called 'Michelino' but it's not that common in most cases... it's easier if you're a female... es: Rosa/Rosina, Angela/Angelina)].
Since someone seems wondering about this... Vargas isn't just a Spanish surname it's also a south Italian surname popular in the area around Caserta. Its origins are from a Visigoth word meaning 'good father'. In the far past Visigoths invaded south Italy as well as Spanish people did much after, so it's unknown due to whom of the two the surname diffused in south Italy (my best pick would be Spain but I might be wrong).
Sure enough, since it's so Spanish sounding and so little diffused it doesn't really feel as representative of Italy.
Many Italians had never heard it and, if Italians never heard it, I guess it's even harder for foreigners to meet an Italian with that surname.
According to the Pagine Bianche (the list of all the Italian telephone numbers) they have 249 Vargas registred.
It could be that Himaruya picked it up because he was searching for something with ties with Spain to reinforce the Romano/Spain connection.
Also... I didn't know about this but I've just found out it seems in Italy we've more than 350.000 surnames and we're among the countries with more surnames in the world... According to some official data, if you pick all the Italian people with the 10 more popular surnames, you would only cover up the 1% of the national population...
If you're curious Italian surnames have assorted origins (people's names, places' names, jobs, nicknames...) and most of them had birth in middle age. The article I've been reading said it's easy to track down from where a person come from if you know his surname... I'm sure this was true in the past but, as of now I'm not so sure it's so easy...
no subject
Some suggested it was from Alberto Vargas, a pin up artist, but the guy is Peruvian... In the movie Thunderball, there's also a Vargas working for Emilio Largo, an Italian enemy of James Bond. I've no idea if said Vargas is also Italian in the movie/book (I'm not a fan of 007) but since his boss is Italian Himaruya might have though he was too.
Anyway, I really have no idea why he picked this surname up.
As I've said Italy is definitely not satisfied of how Veneziano and Romano had been called...