OK, Italian Renaissance people—I need some names for some characters in my novel. I have a witch born in the late 1400’s, her daughter and her two male assistants. I need some plausible first names for these characters. I’m having trouble getting anything on google that isn’t present day names.
I’m not quite sure where to put this…if it needs to be in GQ, mods, please move it.
Possibly this link might be useful for given names:
Rare Given Names in Early Italian Records
A brief extract:
This link might provide you with a bit more of what you’re looking for although the emphasis is on surnames.
Thank you! That’s excellent.
Also chiming in with a pitch for classical (Roman and Greek) names, which are still popular in Italy today. In my family, we have an Oreste (Orestes), Orfeo (Orpheus), Manlio (Manlius), and Ulisse (Ulysses).
You could also skim dictionaries of saints for contemporary names. These names have been used fairly consistently throughout the centuries (e.g., Saint Cecilia may have lived in the 4th century, but that name would have been used during the Renaissance as well, and is still used today).
Come on, just name them Marie, Tina, Sal and Joey and be done with it 
Also, regarding the surnames, surnames are often very localized because of the different dialects spoken in each region (and there can be more than one dialect per region). For example, my father is from the region of Friuli, and our last name is the Friulano version of the Italian word for “little fields,” but it begins with a different letter than the Italian word and has an extra vowel and consonant. This name, as I understand it, is not uncommon in Friuli but most likely would not appear in any other region and is probably recognizable on sight as a Friulian name.
All this is to say that when you’re doing your research on surnames, pay close attention to the place of origin and choose surnames from a different area from which your story is set only if you have a deliberate reason to.
