Do you know anything about Italian names?

[Bertha Venation]

Is "Michele" a man or a woman?

[rurallib]

1. yes

it is a man or a woman.

[Bertha Venation]

2. Well, shit.

Thanks.

[elleng]

8. ...

:thumbsup:

:rofl:

[NoGOPZone]

3. male. as in actor Michele Placido

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0686375/

[Call Me Wesley]

4. Male.

Female would be Michaela. :hi:

[Bertha Venation]

5. Thank you all.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

6. And it's pronounced

"Mi-keh-leh," not like "Michelle" or "Michel," which are the feminine and masculine French forms.

[dimbear]

7. BTW, Italian last names are a fascinating subject. It is astounding

how many of them are abusive. It must have something to do with the spirit of vendetta.

[Capn Sunshine]

9. Like Joey Buttafuoco?

eh, ButtafucYOU

[madinmaryland]

10. Nice post, Amy Fisher!

:P

[pink-o]

11. LOVE the etymology of names! Do you have a good link?? n/t

[dimbear]

12. Sorry, just idle gleanings. Same occurs in many Spanish names.

Remember that famous explorer Juan Cabeza de Vaca? John Cow Head? And of course there's always malatesta and all its variants. Got to be something to do with revenge. And of course there are English examples too. :)

[pink-o]

14. It always killed me that Milan airport is called Malpenza.

If you have any fear of flying that's gotta put you off. Aside from the fact that Milan is one Citta Bruta anyway and one should avoid it like the plague.

But I guess you fly in there to go to Como or Cinque Terre or (my favorite) Santa Margherita and Portofino. I better quit talking about it, cuz I'll get mad that I'm here and not there.

[Call Me Wesley]

15. You won't see Milan from Malpensa.

It's 46 kilometers away from it (40 minutes by express train.) That is probably the worst airport ever built. Perhaps the idea came from Michele Malatesta. ;)

Nope, it was pure corruption why it was built and where.

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

13. Hi there...

Michele is a man; Michela is a woman. Pronunciation: mee-kay-lay and mee-kay-lah. Michelangelo is NOT Michael-Angelo.. It's mee-kay-lahn-gel-oh. Sorry, that drives me nuts.

As for last names, you can actually tell a lot of times the geographic location of a last name. Certain last names are only found in specific areas of Italy or have patterns that are typical of certain Italian regions. For instance, a lot of last names in Sardinia end in 'u.'

There are also plain last names such as Bianchi and Rossi, which can be found throughout Italy.

[Orsino]

16. No. I fugoddabout 'em. n/t

[WinkyDink]

17. Who's being naive now, Kay?