» Peppino http://italyville.com the result of growing up Italian Thu, 26 Aug 2010 15:28:40 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 My name is Peppino http://italyville.com/2008/01/my-name-is-peppino/ http://italyville.com/2008/01/my-name-is-peppino/#comments Thu, 24 Jan 2008 15:18:00 +0000 Joe http://italyville.wordpress.com/2008/01/24/my-name-is-peppino/ So, my birth name is Peppino. However, everyone calls me Joe including my parents, who have always called me Joe. Let me try to explain this. Peppino is a nickname of Giuseppe and Giuseppe of course is Joseph in English. Nicknames of Giuseppe would be: Peppe, Peppino, Peppone, etc. “-ino” meaning little, “-one” meaning big. This [...]]]>

So, my birth name is Peppino. However, everyone calls me Joe including my parents, who have always called me Joe. Let me try to explain this. Peppino is a nickname of Giuseppe and Giuseppe of course is Joseph in English. Nicknames of Giuseppe would be: Peppe, Peppino, Peppone, etc. “-ino” meaning little, “-one” meaning big. This goes for other words in the Italian language as well: bacino = small kiss, bacione = big kiss. So Joe or “little Joe” isn’t really a far stretch from Peppino…. however, sometimes difficult to explain to anyone who isn’t Italian. The first day of school each year was always fun… but not really. Then there was my 3rd grade teacher who would make me write Peppino 100 times for ever time I submitted work with “Joe” on it. I didn’t see many recesses in 3rd grade and as you can imagine, I didn’t like her very much.

I guess it’s a bit unusual to be named a nickname (on your birth certificate.) Joe instead of Joseph, Bob instead of Robert or Peppino instead of Giuseppe but for me Peppino was just another Italian name. I have 3 cousins named Peppino and of course being from Calabria (at least from the area my parents are from), it’s expected that you name your first son after your father, so my grandfather was also Peppino.
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Yesterday I found one of my childhood books tucked away in a box in the basement. The book is called “Peppino” by Sita Jucker and Ursina Ziegler and tells the story of a boy named Peppino who dreams of building a home with his father Peppone and dog Tino. It’s a great children’s book and even better if your name is Peppino. The illustrations are fantastic as well.
Questions I always get:
  • Is Joe your middle name? No it’s Michele (not Michelle… that’s another story)
  • Do you know what Peppino means? Apparently in Portuguese it means cucumber…. great!
  • What do your parents call you? Joe
  • So where does Joe come from? See above
  • Have you ever heard of Peppino the little mouse? If your name is Peppino, you’ve heard of everything that is associated with the name Peppino.
Trouble I got in:
- Getting my cousin’s report card when we were in HS (lets just say he wasn’t a model student)
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