52 Ancestors Week 23: Namesake

From Amy Johnson Crow: This theme was suggested by Linda Whitmore. (Thanks, Linda!) Do you have a name that's been carried through the family for several generations? An ancestor named for a famous person or someone special to the family? 

This week we're covering namesakes and I've got a lot of interesting naming conventions on both sides of the family. A lot of names have been passed down over the years and I'll be talking about quite a few of them. Let's start with my dad's side!

Dad's side:

When you look at Italian birth records, one of the first things you'll notice is that many times the oldest son is named after the father. Or the oldest daughter is named after the mother. However, sometimes the father's name is passed down to the youngest child like with members of the Coppola family.

My dad's name is James Marc Ferraiolo. His father's name was Marco Ferraiolo. Here's where things get a little interesting because Marco's father's name was Vincenzo. For the direct Ferraiolo line, the names have alternated between Marco and Vincenzo for centuries. Check it out:

Marcantonio (1780-)
Marcantonio (1812-)
Vincenzo Gregorio (1847-)
Marco Ferraiolo (1868-)
Vincenzo Ferraiolo (1894-1970)

Fast forward years later and I have an older brother named James who continues the old naming convention. He even passed down the name to one of his kids. Now, you might be saying to yourself "Chris! Vincenzo isn't the same thing as James! You're trying to trick us! STOP!" Ah, dear reader. You have a very good point.  I'll try to explain it as best I can.

Somewhere along the line Vincenzo became James. You see it not just with my family. But, with practically everyone who has ever immigrated to the United States with the name Vincenzo. You'd think the name would've been translated to Vincent like how Paolo becomes Paul and Antonio becomes Anthony. That's not the case!

I remember my father asking about that for years. He's asked his cousin on his mother's side about it and she wasn't sure. Their grandfather, Giuseppe/Joseph, had a father named Vincenzo. Vincenzo's son, Rocco had a son named James Rocco Carrabis. He was born Vincenzo in Gesualdo.

It took a while for my dad to figure it out. There was even a magazine on my first cousin once removed's coffee table called "Italian American Journal" and in it to the surprise of no one was an article about how Vincenzo became James or Jimmy. Sadly, it didn't offer much of a solution. The way some researchers see it it's that somewhere along the line people who came to America picked the name because there was no American equivalent to Vincenzo. Which again is strange. You'd think Vincenzo would be Vincent. Maybe not. It's just one of those weird concepts, I guess. Perhaps in the end they just liked the name.

Mom's side:

My mother's side isn't as nearly rife with odd translations or anything like that. My grandfather's name was Robert Eugene Hamel. His grandfather's name was Eugene and that name has been passed down to several members of the Hamel side of the family for a very long time. One of my uncles and one of my first cousins is named after my grandfather. We thus have this great picture of three generations of Robert Hamel.

We also have three generations of an Alfred Francis Hamel in the family starting with my grandfather's brother, my great-grandfather.

On my mom's maternal side, there are three generations of people named after my great-grandfather, Austin.

Maybe if we go further back on my mom's side we'll find something really interesting and really, really cool. I've briefly talked about my ancestors who fought in the Civil War and the name John Sargent Fisher popped up. He was my 4th great-grandfather and if you look at his tree on Wikitree you can see that the "Sargent" part of his middle name came from his maternal side. I looked into it and it seems that Sargent was passed down to him because of his grandfather, Amos Sargent.

Amos Sargent was one of my almost a dozen soldiers of the American Revolution I have in the tree and was the first one I actually discovered back in the day. I think back in those days it was common to take a last name as a middle name. I've seen it with the Frothingham side of the tree. Most notably Richard Sprague Frothingham who had Sprague ancestors.

I used to think it was unusual for someone to take a last name as a middle name. But, I suppose if they did something notable like fighting in the American Revolution it stands to reason that their descendants would have that last name as a middle name sometimes. It's interesting. But, not that unheard of.

If you go really far back on her tree, though. You'll run into a lot of French names like Antoine, Jacques and the like as well.

In the end, naming traditions are cool. Perhaps it gives the parents a sense of immortality. A part of them lives on and so does their name. Sometimes the name gets passed down for centuries. Sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes there's even times when the name changes because the immigrant liked the name "James". It's hard to say.

I know I'm not named after anyone famous or anything like that. I was born close to Christmas. That's why my parents named me Christopher. But, you know. At least my brother got stuck in the Vincenzo/Marco chain. So, I'm not going to complain! =)

See you next time!