I’m the grandchild of an Italian immigrant in the U.S. I speak four words of Italian and they all have to do with food. My family names their kids Jennifer and Lauren and Daniel and Cassie.
I think it sounds bloody awful.
Areolae is much prettier.
I’m the fourth generation removed from Italian immigrants via Latin America. Strangely enough half of my cousins have Italian names although they sound less foreign when your native language is Portuguese and Brazilians tend to borrow freely with names.
I had a TA in college assume that I must be fresh off the plane because of my name. I spell it out for people all of the time and go by a nickname most of the time.
My wife and I will most likely give our child a name that is more Latin rather than English since to my ear, an English name would sound odd with my last name.
I do like names that aren’t created on the fly, but I think that an unusual name is not all that difficult. With all the immigrants where I live, you run into people with difficult names all the time.
That said Tiano sounds a bit odd to my ear. Christiano doesn’t. I have a cousin with that name although his nickname is something else entirely. I disagree with Mahna Mahna slightly on one thing. While adding the diminutive inho or inha is one way a nickname can come about in Portuguese, there are quite a few more. The name Ze for Jose. I’ve met a few Jose Carlos whose nicknames were Zeca. Ge for Getulio.
They give away trays of meat at pubs?
Only if you win the 50c raffle: proceeds go to the RSL, local footy/rugby team or keeping the geriatric-home minibus in petrol or summat.
And, indeed, you do win a butchers’ tray of lamb chops or really crappy steak. But for 50c, who’s complaining? 