Who Was the first Martire?
A “question that rises
spontaneous” is: “Who was the first Martire” (identifying speaking)
and how did he get this last name? Obviously, everything that you will find
are only assumptions and anyone can go deeper than the supported here.
In order to try to find a theory that justifies the fact that this last name
has been assigned to one person, we must analyze by force a little bit
the history of the last names.
The use of the last name like identification of a family, takes us back
to the ancient Rome. In fact, if in the ancient time was used only one
name, in the last centuries of the roman Republic the free people had three
names (tria nomination): praenomen (that distinguished the individual
and he was comparable to the contemporary own name of person), nomen
(that symbolized the family or genes) and
cognomen (that was used in order to distinguish the families).
Towards the V century the distinction between nomen and cognomen go missing
more and more and becomes common the use of an only name (said supernomen
or signum), with the characteristics not to be inherited and to
have an immediately comprehensible meaning (as an example the imperial name
Augustus that means “sanctified from the glories” or “favourite from good
promoters”).
Between the X and the XI century in Europe a great demographic increase was
taken in place, so that it becomes more and more complicated to distinguish
an individual from another with the single personal name. Becomes
necessary again to identify with another name all the individuals that are
part of the same family, thus the modern last name was born. Such last
name could be originated from a peculiar characteristic of the
persons, like as an example their occupation, or the place of
origin, their social state or simply the name of the parents:
“Rossi” (the most scattered last name in Italy) could make reference to the
shade of the complexion or hair of some ancestors; “Fiorentini” probably
comes originally from Florence, “Of Francisco” could indicate “son of
Francisco”,
I have found 2 various currents of thought - after all very similar - that
they try to identify the derivations of the last names. First, the last
names derive mainly from three sources:
For the second one,
-
a 35% derive from own
names of the father or the model,
-
a 35% is a reference to
names of countries or locals or zones,
-
a 15% are relative to
physical characteristics of the model,
-
a 10% derive from the
profession, trade or to the occupation
-
while a 3% are of recent
foreign derivation
-
and a 2% are glorified
names that the Christian charity reserved for the foundlings.
In the light of these
information, the Martire last name, would nearly in no doubt derive from
a nickname, or to a characteristic of the prototype, that it could
indicate besides a witness of the faith, a hardened defender of own ideas or
principles and that goes against anyone and anything, or could have a funny
meaning, with the meaning of simple, provincial. Or also it could
indicate the origin from a family of people who have worked, suffered a lot
and have been mistreated from other people.
But all these are personal ideas. If you have other ideas, you can write,
and I will modernize this page.
Remark: Angelo Bongiovanni in his test of etymologic and
historical researches entitled “Names and Last names” says that Martire
derives-De Martire-Martorelli from the Dominican Saint Peter from Verona,
Saint Peter Martire, died the 29 April 1252, from the epithet, in this
specific Martire, that comes added to several Saints.
But the question in this case is: But how is it possible that
the Martire has been born from a priest?
Return to Martire etymology
Historical References of the Martire
Surname
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