You’ll NEVER look at Italian names the same AGAIN😲🤯

Do you know someone with these names? TAG THEM!

The surnames ‘Esposito’ and ‘Proieitti’ are only a few of the most common Italian surnames – which is especially true for people coming from Naples and Rome because these two names originated from there!

But have you ever stopped to think where they might come from? Well, here’s your answer: it’s called the foundling wheel or la ruota degli esposti/projetti in Italian.

Huh?

Let’s go back to the 12th century when Pope Innocenzo (Innocent) III had had enough of the staggering number of infanticide in Rome and was plagued by the recurring nightmares of dead newborns being fished out the local river. To put a stop to this, he introduced the first-ever foundling wheel, or kind of baby hatch, in the Santo Spirito hospital near the Vatican City.

These foundling wheels were wooden cylinders set upright in the outside wall of churches and hospitals and would function similarly to a revolving door. Mothers, who couldn’t raise their child for different reasons, could place their baby inside the cylinder, turn it around so that the baby was inside the church, and then rang a bell to alert those inside who could then take care of the baby – all while remaining anonymous!

These abandoned babies were often given conventional names, for instance, in Rome, the common surname ‘Proietti’, like the famous Italian actor Gigi Proietti, derives from the Roman name for the wheel ‘la ruota dei projetti’; or in Florence, the common surname was ‘Innocenti’ or ‘Degl’Innocenti’; and Genova, names like ‘Casagrande’ and ‘Dellacasa’ were also common.

Whereas in Naples, the surname ‘Esposito’ (from esposto) derives from their local name of the foundling wheel (ruota degli esposti). In fact, you can still find a medieval foundling wheel at the Annunziata hospital in Naples where the first ever Esposito baby was recorded. His name was Fabritio and was taken into care on January 1st 1623!

Other surnames, such as Dell’Anna or Dell’Immacolata, include the names of saints which correspond to the day the baby was taken into care (because each day has a corresponding saint in Italy!)

Do you know someone with one of these surnames? Let me know in the comments 👇💬

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🇮🇹 Un abbraccio 🤗 (hug) Michele

P.S. Want to learn Italian with my 80/20 method? Just send me a message and I’ll tell you how.

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