Masculine/feminine given name pairs from the 1427 Catasto of Florence

by Sara L. Uckelman
known in the SCA as Aryanhwy merch Catmael

© 2005 Sara L. Uckelman; all rights reserved
last updated 14Jan05

748 distinct masculine names and 255 distinct feminine names were recorded in the 1427 Catasto of Florence. The following 123 pairs of names from the 1427 Catasto of Florence show that there was widespread feminization of masculine names, both common and uncommon ones; 29% of the masculine names have a corresponding feminine form, and 48% of the feminine names are feminized forms of masculine names. The feminized forms show a fairly distinct pattern: In general, masculine terminal -o and -i changed to -a, and terminal -e and -a remained unchanged. There are few exceptions to this pattern.

In constructing this list, I considered only direct matches (e.g., ones where the only difference between the masculine and the feminine forms was the final vowel), with the exception of the pairs Agabito/Agabitta and Camillo/Cammilla. This means that feminine names that are feminization of diminutives that do not show up in the Catasto are not listed, nor are spelling variants, unless the variant occurs in both the men's and the women's names.

MasculineNumberFeminineNumber
Agabito1Agabitta1
Agnesa1Agnesa1
Agnolo86Agnola26
Alamanno5Alamanna1
Aldighieri1Aldighiera1
Alessandro11Alessandra3
Andrea206Andrea206
Andreolo1Andreola1
Antonio661Antonia84
Apollonio5Apollonia15
Banco5Banca2
Bartolo72Bartola5
Bartolomeo290Bartolomea46
Bello1Bella5
Bene2Bene1
Benedetto70Benedetta6
Benevenuto1Benvenuta2
Bernardo132Bernarda5
Bertino4Bertina1
Betto18Betta17
Bettino10Bettina1
Biagio43Biagia5
Biondo2Bionda2
Buono14Buona6
Camillo1Camilla1
Camillo1Cammilla1
Cecco38Cecca43
Chiaro5Chiara3
Ciano1Ciana1
Ciulo1Ciula1
Corradino1Corradina1
Cristofano91Cristofana6
Deo3Dea2
Domenico234Domenica13
Dono2Dona1
Donato37Donata1
Donnino6Donnina1
Dore1Dora1
Duccio11Duccia1
Feo5Fea4
Felice6Felice6
Filippo134Filippa21
Fino1Fina1
Fiore1Fiore10
Franco5Franca1
Francesco390Francesca34
Franchino1Franchina1
Frosino30Frosina1
Gentile7Gentile1
Geri14Gera2
Gherardo26Gherarda2
Giano5Giana1
Giannotto2Gianotta1
Gilio2Gilia1
Giovanni739Giovanna39
Girolama12Girolama1
Gostanzo1Gostanza19
Grazia3Grazia1
Guglielmino2Gugliemina1
Guido47Guida4
Iacopo329Iacopa15
Lapo17Lapa8
Lapaccio3Lapaccia3
Leonardo82Leonarda12
Lippo8Lippa1
Lisa1Lisa45
Lore1Lora2
Lorenzo216Lorenza12
Lotto13Lotta1
Lottieri2Lottiera2
Luca82Luca4
Lucio1Lucia14
Manetto9Manetta1
Mariano20Marianna1
Maruccio1Maruccia1
Maso44Masa4
Matteo136Mattea28
Mea2Mea30
Michelino2Michelina1
Migliore5Migliore3
Mino3Mina1
Naldino1Naldina1
Nanni92Nanna51
Nardo25Narda1
Nastagio2Nastagia3
Nencio10Nencia4
Neri37Nera5
Neso1Nese2
Niccolo259Niccola1
Nigi4Nigia1
Nofri24Nofra6
Nuto5Nuta1
Nutino1Nutina1
Onesto1Onesta1
Orso2Orsa1
Orsino2Orsina1
Pace9Pace2
Pagolo132Pagola10
Papero1Papera14
Papino2Papina1
Piccardo1Piccarda1
Piero391Piera53
Pippo23Pippa19
Ricco6Ricca1
Riccardo9Riccarda1
Rosso6Rossa1
Salvestro47Salvestra4
Sandro40Sandra19
Santi23Santa5
Simone132Simona18
Stefano69Stefana2
Taddeo33Taddea14
Tedesco1Tedesca1
Tommaso138Tommasa19
Tone2Tona1
Toro1Tora1
Ulivo2Uliva2
Vaggio1Vaggia6
Vangelista2Vangelista2
Vanni20Vanna5
Verdiano1Verdiana1
Vettorio6Vettoria1
Zanobi88Zanobia20


References

Arval Benicoeur, "Feminine Given Names from the Online Catasto of Florence of 1427" (WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1998).

Ferrante laVolpe, "Men's names from Florence, 1427" (WWW: Self-published, 1996; Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1999).