Italian Name

Italian Name

A name in Italian consists of a given name (nome) and a surname (cognome). Surnames are normally written after given names. Occasionally in official documents, the surname may be written before given names. In speech, the use of given name before family name is standard.

Italian names are not entirely equivalent to ancient Latin ones, for instance, the Italian nome is not analogous to the ancient Roman nomen, since the former is the given name (distinct between siblings) while the latter the family name (inherited, thus shared by all siblings).