Tomorrow's the Day...

[Squigy]

Italians do not name children after their fathers or mothers. The first born child in a family, be it male or female is often named for the paternal grand-father. For example, the paternal grand-father of my cousin in Italy was Octavio. My cousin, a girl, is named Octavia.

The second born child, be it male or female, is often named for the paternal grand-mother. No children are named for maternal grand-parents.

I understand completely your grand-father being annoyed that you were named after your father. It's a British custom. Italian boys are never called Junior or Sonny. To differentiate between a grand-father and grand-son with the same name, the ending meaning "little" is used. For example: Grandfather: Giuseppi, Grand-son: Peppino

Regarding Italy not recognizing initials. I was given at birth in the USA a first name, middle name and last name. Through the years, I completely dropped my middle name but replaced it with an initial for my signature. After my Italian citizenship was recognized, I moved to Italy where I was forced to take back and sign forever my entire given name (first, middle, last) because Italy recognizes only the entire given name at birth and doesn't recognize initials at all.

Jenna, I believe you are mistaken. I don't know about the part where you said the first child is named after the father regardless of gender (you may be right), but the part about children not being named after the maternal grandparents is wrong.

The way I understand it is,

If the first child is a male, then it is named after the father's father. If it's a female, it's named after the father's mother. If the next child is a male it's named after the mother's father, if it's a female, it's named after the mother's mother. Once all the children's grandparents names are used up, they move on to the siblings of the parents.I could be wrong, but I believe they start with the father's siblings, and then move on to the mother's. Either that or they alternate.

There are some rare exceptions, for instance, the child may be named after a Saint, or something like that.

If I'm wrong, someone please correct me.

[Drew927]

Vittorio,
Thanks for the info regarding your USCIS letter. Mine does not mention that he did not become a naturalized citizen of the U.S.. It just says no records were found.
I am going through the NYC consulate. I've already sent a request for the letter to be ammended but it's been three weeks and i'm getting nervous.

Drew

[Gianna75010]

Hi Vittorio.

Thanks for the info. I also did a USCIS search and was able to obtain an Alien Registration FILE for my GGF but it did not contain an Alien CARD. Did your ancestor have an Alien CARD and a FILE or just the card? My ancestor's Alien File had been transferred to the Kansas City branch of the National Archives so maybe that has something to do with it.

Also, if you don't mind me asking, about how much did the translations cost? I don't want to spend too much on them considering that I can do them myself, but I also don't want to show up and have them tell me that everything is fine but my documents need to be professionally translated. I am considering maybe just having my birth certificate and possibly my parents' professionally done to cut down on the costs.

Thanks again for your help.
Gianna

[VittorioE]

Drew - I wouldn't stress... it takes them a bit... but you'll get it - and you'll definitely need the new wording.

Gianna - I said card - in terms of Alien Registration - but I think we're talking about the same thing... it's actually a two page questionnaire which my grandfather had to fill out - and sign.