What’s in a name? (Part 2)

In https://www.pocafavilla.com/hinterland/che-cos-un-nome I wrote about the question What’s in a name?, discussing ‘C’ and the different names she adopts for different versions of herself. Names reflect the roles she is playing in a given situation. None of these versions is fully her. She’s in all of them. But she’s also none of them. So, for her, that is what’s in a name. It’s a hiding place. A disguise.

But the act of giving somebody a name can be an act of love. We don’t usually choose them for ourselves. Our parents choose them for us. Usually with care. 

Alexandra Brett, my writing partner in Poca Favilla, is a good example. Her parents wanted her name to root her in both sides of her inheritance: the Italian, through her mother and her birthplace, and the Irish, through her father. Hence the ever-popular Italian Alessandra became the more unusual, at least in the Veneto, Alexandra. That X carries a nation.

And when we came to name the characters in L’Ancora, we realised that Sofia might want to do something similar. With an Italian mother and an American father, Hugo seemed like a name they would choose, rather than the more typically Italian Ugo.

I confess I also enjoy the struggles many Italians have with ‘H’, both in pronunciation and spelling. I should know: Jonathan Hayward is a name that can cause a lot of confusion. I recognise the same challenge when we Brits try to hear, never mind pronounce, the difference between gli and li. 

And then there are names which belong almost to relationships rather than to people. The nicknames that survive between old friends long after everyone else has stopped using them. The often ridiculous names lovers give each other, which would sound absurd coming from anyone else. The silly, loving names parents give their children, which somehow make perfect sense within the intimacy of a family. We have Sofia calling Hugo “Bear Cub” in the screenplay, just because it felt right. And she says it in English, because she would, wouldn’t she? 

There’s another way that Sofia and Fede’s family (that is, the Nievo family, that surname being another story, for another time…) use names. Sofia has Beatrice as a middle name, after her mother. Hugo’s middle name is Federico, connecting him to his uncle. For the Nievos, a name is not something to wear lightly. 

So, what’s in a name? 

Perhaps the rose smells the same whatever we call it. But that doesn't mean the name is empty. ‘C’ uses names to create distance. The Nievos use them to keep each other close. 

What's in a name? What we choose to put into it.