How Many Names Do You Have? Dr. Ed Iannuccilli

How Many Names Do You Have? Dr. Ed Iannuccilli

Have you ever thought of the names you have gone by or been called over the years? It sprang to mind the other day as I was thinking of a religion instructor I encountered.

Because I went to a public school, I had to attend after-school religious classes. The teacher, a nun, frowned over her half-rim glasses, “Is Edward I-tool-ee ay here?”

I looked up. It had to be me. “Sister, where do you see a “T’ in my name? It’s all vowels.”

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She scowled and barked, “Oh, it doesn’t matter.”

“Yes, it does. It matters to me. My father would not be happy if he knew that you said that pronouncing our name correctly didn’t matter.” She turned away.

I presume the first name I sported was Baby Boy Iannuccilli which became Edward Anthony Iannuccilli on my birth certificate. The adults in our three-tenement home called me Edward as in, “Edward, put on your rubbers. Edward, come home when the streetlights go on.” In the neighborhood, it was Eddie or Eddie I. When I outraced my friends, I was Fast Eddie. In later years, they called me Ed. I liked that.

When I carved into a tree, I was EAI. My grandfather scrolled “Edward, 1949” into freshly poured cement he had laid in our rear yard.

I had a pet name with a girlfriend, but that’s for another story. Too embarrassing, too personal, too evocative. I should have carved her name in the tree.

I have been called Mr. Ed in honor of the famous horse. When I went to college, a professor called me Edward Yank-a-nelly, so for the next four years, I was Ed Yank. I didn’t ask where he saw a ‘K.’

In medical school, my Anatomy professor, a good old boy from the south, called me Anasella as in “Anisella, haa’s the studyin’ goin.”

Professionally, I have been Dr. Iannuccilli, Dr. I, and Dr. Ed.

An art professor at Providence College suggested the origin of Iannuccilli was in the Latin words Janus, for gate, and coelis, for heaven. “So, Iannuccilli, your name may mean gate of heaven.”  I extolled it for years.

An Italian teacher told me that my name might be a derivative of Giovanni. He expounded that the Italian word uccio means dear or pretty, and illo means small. So, Iannuccilli might indicate dear or pretty, little John. I liked that also. So kind, so mellow.

What does it mean? It’s the people who lend honor to a name. There are Iannuccilli bankers, lawyers, doctors, teachers, realtors, craftsmen, skilled laborers, developers, etc., whose ancestors came from Roccamonfina, a small town just south of Rome, where successful Iannuccilli’s harvest a substantial portion of the world’s chestnut crop.

I have a brother, sons, grandsons, nephews, and friends who carry this name, rich in tradition, rooted in history.

Our names are a part of our identity. They are personal, cultural, and familial. They give us an awareness of who we are. They should make us proud.

What’s in a name? A lifetime.

 

Dr. Ed Iannuccilli is the author of three popular memoirs, “Growing up Italian; Grandfather’s Fig Tree and Other Stories”, “What Ever Happened to Sunday Dinner” and “My Story Continues: From Neighborhood to Junior High.”  Learn more HERE.