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Most popular Italian names
I came across this piece on yahoo
http://it.notizie.yahoo.com/popolazione-istat-francesco-e-giulia-nomi-preferiti-da-142100752.html with the most recent stat for Italian names.
Here are the 30 most popular names for each gender for 2009BOYS:
Francesco
Alessandro
Matteo
Andrea
Lorenzo
Gabriele
Mattia
Riccardo
Davide
Luca
Leonardo
Marco
Federico
Giuseppe
Simone
Tommaso
Antonio
Giovanni
Alessio
Filippo
Christian
Pietro
Samuele
Daniele
Cristian
Emanuele
Michele
Edoardo
Diego
NicolòGIRLS:
Giulia
Sofia
Martina
Sara
Giorgia
Chiara
Aurora
Alessia
Alice
Francesca
Anna
Gaia
Emma
Elisa
Giada
Matilde
Noemi
Beatrice
Elena
Greta
Federica
Rebecca
Nicole
Arianna
Asia
Viola
Ilaria
Vittoria
Ginevra
Marta
I'm frustrated that a few of my boys' favourites, like Nicolò and Lorenzo, are becoming so popular. There's also a few "evergreens" in the boys' lists, like Giuseppe, Giovanni, Marco and Francesco.As for the girls, what's interesting to notice, considering that the turnover of names is slower in Italy and the name pool more restricted than in English-speaking countries, that the girls' list is full of names that in most cases were very uncommon one generation before. I'm in my early thirties and have never met a Sofia, Noemi or Rebecca my age. Asia was virtually unheard of, I'm assuming it's becoming popular because of actress Asia Argento.It's also interesting to see that Emma seems to be popular everywhere right now. There are still however a few classics here, like Anna and Chiara. My own uber popular name, Francesca, seems to *finally* have slipped off the radar.I'd also assume that by now there's enough of an immigrant population in Italy for their names to enter the naming pool, I am curious to know if that's not the case yet or if immigrants are giving their children Italian names.
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As a lover of Italian names, I appreciate this post!I see my favorites Alessio and Alessia are still pretty high up there. At least they aren't being neglected!
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My favourites:Luca - I actually don't like Luca, but I love Lucas!
Leonardo - Cute, mainly because I love just Leo!
Christian - LOVE IT
Samuele - I love Samuel, without the e.
Daniele - Ditto Samuel.
Cristian - LOVE LOVE LOVE it! One of my faves and I love this spelling.
Diego - LOVE it.Giulia - Prefer Julia because I'm used to it, but it's a beautiful name.
Sofia - Love it also, and I love only this spelling.
Anna - LOVE IT! I adore Anna, it's perfect.
Noemi - Pretty name, prefer it over Naomi.
Elena - Lovely elegant name.
Arianna - Prefer Ariana, but it's very pretty.:)
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I love many of these:-)
My faves:Alessandro
Andrea
Davide
Simone
Filippo
Pietro
EmanueleSofia
Aurora
Beatrice
Elena
Viola
Vittoria
MartaIt's interesting to see that some of these are also popular in Croatia (Leonardo, Luca/ Luka, Sara), while others are dated here and I've never seen them on babies (Martina, Antonio)
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Such beautiful names. I like every name with the exceptions of Asia and Nicole. Sadly, a few from the boy list, most notably Andrea, Simone, Michele, and (probably) Mattia, would be presumed to be girls in the U.S.
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I like (love*)Matteo - prefer Matheo*
Luca*
Alessio
Filippo - prefer Filip(e)
Samuele - prefer SamuelSofia - prefer Sophia*
Aurora
Alessia
Gaia
Elisa
Matilde
Greta*
Ginevra
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I like all the girls names apart from Giulia (much prefer Julia), Martina and Asia. Some of them are really really nice - I particularly like Arianna, Ginevra, Greta, Alice, Noemi, Elena and Viola.Unfortunately I have never really liked Italian boys names. I don't mind very short names ending with O (Milo, Leo, Theo etc.) but I don't like longer ones, so very few of these are my sort of thing.
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Because the letter j traditionally didn't exist in the Italian alphabet, and would be pronounced like an English "y" anyway, Julia isn't really an option and would look foreign.
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