What’s in a Name?

Genealogy fans and fanatics have a new rabbit hole to scurry down in their quest to seek their origins and past. Linguist Alma Barozzi has written a book that explores the evolution of surname patterns on the European continent from the dawn of inheritable family names. Framed within the field of onomastics – the study of the history and origin of names – What kind of Name is That? examines not only the geography and linguistic character of a people, but also the effects of its history, including migration patterns, conquests, power dynamics, on national borders and cultural identities, and ultimately, on naming traditions.

Barozzi’s journey through surnames begins in southern Europe with Italy and moves clockwise, first west and north through Western Europe, then from the British Isles eastward through Scandinavia, the Baltic States, and finally southward through Eastern Europe and the Balkan Peninsula. It begins and ends on the shores of the Mediterranean, making stops in countries whose peoples speak a variety of mostly Indo-European languages (Romance, Germanic, Slavic, Greek) sprinkled with several non-Indo-European tongues. She plans to follow up with books about surnames in other parts of the world.

Born in Bucharest, Romania, Barozzi immigrated to the United States in her teens in the 1960s. She graduated from Stony Brook University with a bachelor’s degree in linguistics, then earned a master’s degree in linguistics from the University of the Andes in Bogota, Colombia, and a master’s and doctorate in applied linguistics from Nebrija University in Madrid, Spain. She currently lives on the North Shore and chairs the department of foreign languages at The Academy at Penguin Hall in Wenham, where she teaches Spanish and Oral History.

“For as long as I can recall,” Barozzi says, “I’ve been drawn to the diversity and mysterious origins of family names. Where are you from? Where is your family from? Your grandparents? Your roots? I asked these questions with curiosity and some trepidation, not wanting to make anyone feel uncomfortable.”

Over the years, her interest expanded to the bearers of any unusual last name, whether she knew them or not. She was fascinated by surname patterns in different cultures and often searched for sources that might satisfy her curiosity. She found multiple books and articles on surnames specific to certain countries, but what she really wanted was an atlas of surnames. So she decided to create one.

Barozzi hopes her book will be informative as well as entertaining, a guide for onomastics professionals, genealogists, as well as casual readers and those curious to learn if their names may harken back to an ancestor known as a “clay marble baker,” “wise one” or “rooster,” or perhaps to a tree or blackberry grove inhabited by the family centuries ago.

What Kind of Name is That? is available from Amazon.