Same Name

The old Italian naming tradition dictates that the first-born son is named after the paternal grandfather and the first-born daughter after the maternal grandmother.

In one branch of our Italian family the names Domenico and Giuseppe are constantly re-occurring.

This hasn’t made researching very easy, it has most definitely been a challenge.

What we weren’t expecting to find was two sons born to the same parents, with the same name and that both lived!

Domenico Clemente and Maria Lanni had five children, two girls and three boys.

Domenico’s father was called Giuseppe; therefore the first-born son was named the same.

Giuseppe Clemente was born in 1864 in Sant’Elia Fiumerapido, Frosinone. Giuseppe later went on to marry Arcangela Di Mambro, creating a family of their own and making the move from Italy to the United Kingdom (read more about this here) and I am one of the results of this move.

Three years later in 1867 Domenico and Maria welcomed their second son and named him..yes you’ve got it, Giuseppe!

It may well be that neither of the Giuseppes were known as Giuseppe to friends and family, we are yet to discover. Official records in Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States have them both named Giuseppe.

Giuseppe II, as we have affectionately named him, married Antonia Cocorocchio and went on to have an extensive family. They also left Italy and came to the United Kingdom, but they didn’t stay long. Giuseppe made the move from the UK to the United States in 1905, with his family following a year later when they settled in Boston, MA.

The naming tradition continued with Giuseppe (born 1864) naming his first-born son Domenico, after his father. This first-born son is my great grandfather Domenico Clemente, read more about him here.