Some Italian boy names have English counterparts. In some of those cases, it is easy to recognize the English counterpart because the spellings are somewhat close, like Stefano (Stephen) and Antonio (Anthony).
There are also cases where the spelling differences are more substantial, like for example, Enrico (Henry), Orazio (Horace), or Giuseppe (Joseph).
| Italian male name |
corresponding English name |
|---|---|
| Giorgio | George |
| Lorenzo | Lawrence |
| Giovanni | John |
| Giacomo | James |
| Matteo | Matthew |
| Giuseppe | Joseph |
| Enrico | Henry |
| Luigi | Louis, Lewis |
| Edoardo | Edward |
| Alessandro | Alexander |
| Antonio | Anthony |
| Carlo | Charles |
| Davide | David |
| Orazio | Horace |
| Sergio | Serge |
| Francesco | Francis |
| Luca | Luke |
| Marco | Mark |
| Riccardo | Richard |
| Michele | Michael |
| Paolo | Paul |
| Alessio | Alexis |
| Vincenzo | Vincent |
| Corrado | Conrad |
| Pietro | Peter |
| Roberto | Robert |
| Raffaele | Raphael |
| Valentino | Valentine |
| Stefano | Stephen |
| Andrea | Andrew |
| Tommaso | Thomas |
| Claudio | Claude |
| Filippo | Philip |
| Niccolò | Nicholas |
| Vittorio | Victor |
| Gabriele | Gabriel |
| Emanuele | Emmanuel |
| Daniele | Daniel |
| Danilo | Daniel |
| Federico | Frederick |
| Valentino | Valentine |
| Rinaldo | Reynold |
| Leonardo | Leonard |
| Raimondo | Raymond |
| Maurizio | Maurice |
| Alberto | Albert |
| Luciano | Lucian |
| Domenico | Dominic |
| Ruggero | Roger |
| Patrizio | Patrick |
| Guido | Guy |
| Alfredo | Alfred |
The following Italian boy names either have no English equivalents (or have English equivalents that are very rare):
Sometimes, a famous namesake can add additional appeal to a name. In the case of Italian male names, there are plenty of well-known individuals with these names.
Here are some examples:
| Individual | Occupation |
|---|---|
| Federico Fellini | Italian filmmaker who made the movie “La Dolce Vita” |
| Giacomo Puccini | Italian composer who wrote several operas including “Tosca” and “Madama Butterfly” |
| Claudio Monteverdi | Italian composer born in the 16th century |
| Claudio Abbado | Italian opera conductor |
| Carlo Collodi | Italian author who created the character Pinocchio |
| Domenico Scarlatti | Italian composer born in the 17th century |
| Enzo Ferrari | Italian founder of the Ferrari car brand |
| Ennio Morricone | Italian composer who composed the scores for many movies, including “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” |
| Fiorello La Guardia | American politician of Italian descent who was Mayor of New York City (the LaGuardia Airport in New York is named after him) |
| Ferruccio Lamborghini | Founder of the Lamborghini car brand |
| Gioachino Rossini | Italian opera composer born in the 18th century (the French recipe “Tournedos Rossini” is named after him) |
| Gaetano Donizetti | Italian opera composer born in the city of Bergamo (in the region of Lombardy) |
| Vincenzo Bellini | Italian opera composer |
| Giorgio Armani | Italian fashion designer |
| Leonardo da Vinci | Italian Renaissance polymath who painted the Mona Lisa |
| Ettore Bugatti | Italian founder of the Bugatti car brand |
| Luciano Pavarotti | Italian opera singer |
| Lorenzo de Medici | Patron of the arts during the Italian Renaissance |
| Giacomo Casanova | 18th century Venetian adventurer (his last name is now a word in English dictionaries) |
| Ludovico Einaudi | Italian pianist and composer (he has composed many film soundtracks) |
| Lino Ventura | Italian actor who starred in many French movies, including “Les Tontons flingueurs” |
| Mario Draghi | Italian economist and politician who has served as president of the European Central Bank and as prime minister of Italy |
| Matteo Renzi | Italian politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy |
| Niccolò Machiavelli | Italian author of “The Prince” (the English adjective Machiavellian is derived from his name) |
| Niccolò Paganini | Italian violin player and composer born in Genoa during the late 18th-century |
| Mario Prada | founder of Prada, the Italian luxury fashion company |
| Umberto Eco | Italian philosopher who wrote the novel “The Name of the Rose” |
| Vittorio De Sica | Italian film director who made the movie “Bicycle Thieves” |
| Marcello Mastroianni | talian actor who starred in the movie “La dolce vita” |
| Gianni Versace | Italian fashion designer who founded the luxary fashion company Versace |
| Silvio Berlusconi | Italian media tycoon who served several times as prime minister of Italy |
| Renzo Piano | Italian architect (he worked on the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and the Whitney Museum in New York City) |
| Sandro Botticelli | Italian renaissance artist who painted “The Birth of Venus” |
Compound names combine two names. In French, they are formed with a hyphen (for example, Jean-Claude, Jean-Paul, and Jean-Luc).
In Italian, compound names are not written with a hyphen: in some cases, the two components are combined to form a single word; in other cases, they are separated by a space.
Here are some compound male names used in Italy:
William Shakespeare’s tragedy “Romeo and Juliet” takes place in Italy (in the city of Verona). Romeo is indeed an Italian name. Juliet, however, is the English form of the Italian name Giulietta. In fact, the Italian title of the play is “Romeo e Giulietta.”
The letter ‘J’ is rarely used in Italian (aside from a few loanwords). That is why Italian boy names usually don’t begin with that letter, as you can see in the following table:
| Italian name |
corresponding English name |
|---|---|
| Giovanni | John |
| Giuseppe | Joseph |
| Giuliano | Julian |
| Giustino | Justin |
| Giacomo | James / Jacob |
| Gioachino | Joachim |
| Gianni | Johnny |
| Geremia | Jeremy |
Did you ever notice how Italian words tend not to start with the letter ‘h’. For example, look at the following Italian words: “elicottero” (helicopter), “umidità” (humidity), “armonia” (harmony).
Italian does use the letter ‘h,’ but you rarely see it at the beginning of words. Nor do you typically see it at the beginning of names.
| Italian name |
corresponding English name |
|---|---|
| Ugo | Hugh |
| Orazio | Horace |
| Ettore | Hector |
| Ermanno | Herman |
| Ermes / Ermete | Hermes |
| Aroldo | Harold |
| Umberto | Humbert |
| Giacinto | Hyacinth |
| Omero | Homer |
Double consonants are not uncommon in Italian names. In some cases, the difference between an Italian name and its Spanish counterpart is the presence of a double consonant in the Italian version.
Examples include “Riccardo” (Italian) versus “Ricardo” (Spanish) and “Matteo” (Italian) versus “Mateo” (Spanish).
| Italian | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Riccardo | Ricardo | Richard |
| Ettore | Héctor | Hector |
| Filippo | Felipe | Philip |
| Matteo | Mateo | Matthew |
| Vittorio | Víctor | Victor |
| Alessandro | Alejandro | Alexander |
| Giovanni | Juan | John |
| Giuseppe | José | Joseph |
| Tommaso | Tomás | Thomas |
| Ruggero | Rogelio | Roger |
| Raffaelle / Raffaello |
Rafael | Raphael |
When you learn Italian you notice that the letter ‘z’ is not uncommon in the vocabulary words. Examples include “zucchero” (sugar), “piazza” (city square), “zanzara” (mosquito), and, of course, “pizza.”
That letter is also not uncommon in Italian names. Here are some Italian boy names that contain the letter ‘z’:
In English, the letter ‘y’ appears rather frequently. Not only at the end of adverbs (like the word “frequently”) but also in the spelling of names.
In Italian, this is not the case. The letter ‘y’ is rarely used in Italian (aside from a few loanwords).
The Italian equivalents of English names that contain the letter ‘y’ usually don’t contain that letter, as you can see in the table below:
| Italian name | English name |
|---|---|
| Enrico | Henry |
| Antonio | Anthony |
| Raimondo | Raymond |
| Geremia | Jeremy |
| Timoteo | Timothy |
The letter ‘K’ was hardly ever used in Latin. The same is true of Italian.
Italian boy names generally do not contain the letter ‘k’.
| Italian name | English name |
|---|---|
| Marco | Mark |
| Luca | Luke |
| Curzio | Kurt |
| Federico | Frederick |
| Patrizio | Patrick |
Another characteristic of the spelling of Italian boy names is that the letter ‘x’ is rarely used.
That letter is also rarely used in Italian vocabulary words. For instance, the word “example” is “esempio” in Italian. And the word “text” is “testo” in Italian.
| Italian name | English name |
|---|---|
| Alessandro | Alexander |
| Massimiliano | Maximilian |
| Felice | Felix |
| Saverio | Xavier |
| Alessio | Alexis |
The letter ‘w’ is rarely used in Italian, aside from loanwords like “weekend.” So ‘w’ is another letter that you generally will not see in Italian boy names.
| Italian name | English name |
|---|---|
| Luigi | Lewis |
| Matteo | Matthew |
| Guglielmo | William |
| Andrea | Andrew |
| Lorenzo | Lawrence |
| Valter | Walter |
| Osvaldo | Oswald |