My son was born in Italy. My husband and I didn’t have too many difficulties thinking of what we were going to call him (this is from my hazy memory, we did have much more deliberation on what we called our daughter!). My husband was the one who went downstairs in the hospital and registered our son’s name – just one first name.
When he was christened a few weeks later, he gained another two names – one picked by us and one picked by his godparents. So essentially he has three first names, although ‘officially’ he has just one.
That is why I find it really interesting that :
il nome di battesimo
is described as first name or Christian name, because it seems to imply the name that you are given when you are baptised (battesimo). Sure he was baptised with the name that my husband had picked once he entered the world, but in my mind he has another two names.
The above photo is my son with my Mum.
The above photo shows my son with my husband’s parents, and his English grandmother, my son’s great grandmother. My kids have been lucky enough to know two of their great grandparents, both from my husband’s family.
The celebratory cake for afterwards. It was a fun filled experience, as the priest had actually forgotten about the event, so he had to be chased to perform the ceremony.
