ASPECTS OF THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF MOSTA (1630-1650)

Carmel Calleja

Dissertation submitted to the Department of History at the Royal University of Malta, Malta 1973

The digital version of this unpublished dissertation may have some differences from original introduced during the scanning process which due to the limited resources didn't have time to completely verify and is another reason why one has to seek the original version (located at UOM) when needs to quote references from it.

CHAPTER FIVE

A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF CHRISTIAN NAMES AND SURNAMES

(p.89) On considering carefully the surnames in Table XVIII⁸⁴, it can be proved that many of the Maltese surnames, which are in common use today, were already well-established in Mosta by 1650. Nevertheless, one meets with a number of rare surnames like Giarasco, Gaietani, Malechi, Mellehi, Liftech, Dolfa and Gilestri. The concentration of the surname Galia which was so prevalent in 1419 and the 1480s remained even more so in the 17th century.⁸⁵ However, certain Semitic surnames like Burasi, Chumi, Felu, Hakim, Heleu, Lukisi, Mahnuq and Muzangar disappeared from Mosta. The fact that many of the surnames at Mosta in the period 1630-1650 were non-semitic does not necessarily imply a foreign origin to the families to which they belong. The clergy and notaries tended to be deeply influenced by the culture of Sicily, Spain and Europe generally, and they kept their records in a European language, and tended to translate surnames as they wrote.

(p.90) The surname Cumbo, which was relatively common in the 1480s, is less so in the period 1630-1650. After checking all the surnames in the Birth, Marriage and Death Registers I came across only three persons with that surname living at Mosta, namely Petrucia⁸⁶, the local midwife Antonina⁸⁷, and Gratiam.⁸⁸ The decline in the surname may have been the result of the Barbary corsairs’ attack on Mosta in 1526 when Mosta was almost depleted of all its inhabitants.

The modern Maltese ‘j’ or long ‘i’ were often denoted by ‘y’ like in Calleya, Hibeyer, Xebyras and Pisayla.

It may also be pointed out that the Birth Registers for the period 1630-1650 contain 62 different names for boys and 47 for girls, the most popular being Dominicus⁸⁹ and Jo:Maria for boys; and Maria, Gratia, Chaterina and Dominica for girls.⁹⁰ The name, Joannes (the patron saint of the Order), is relatively not very common, but we find it on many occasions combined with other names like Jo:Maria, (p.91) Jo:Paulus, Jo:Dominicus, Jo:Petrus, Jo:Lucas, Jo:Andreas and Jo:Vincencius. There are some names which would appear very strange today like Therasmus, Marinus, Blasius, Lucius and Martius for boys; and Camilla, Argenta, Galicia, Flaminia and Natalia for girls. Furthermore, I came across only one nickname, namely, Catherina Galia alias Spadi.⁹¹

TABLE XVIII

(pp.92-98)

TABLE XIX

(pp.99-101)

ANALYSIS OF CHRISTIAN NAMES (BIRTHS ONLY) 1630-1650
Male	Total	Female	Total
Dominicus (Dominico)	75	Maria (Mariette / Mariettina)	84
Jo: Maria (Gio: Maria)	68	Gratia	59
Joannes	20	Chaterina	48
Gratius	19	Dominica	41
Clemens (Clemencius)	17	Paulina (Paula)	20
Matteus (Matteolus, Matteolo)	16	Margarita	18
Petrus	14	Clemencia Clementia)	16
Jo: Paulus	13	Joannella	12
Gregorius	12	Angelica	8
Josephus (Joseph)	12	Sperancia (Speratia / Speranza)	6
Paulus	11	Theresa (Teresa)	6
Andreas	10	Agnes	3
Thomas	10	Geronima	3
Marius (Marianus, Mario)	9	Marteola	3
Salvator	9	Nuncia	3
Jacobus	7	Raymonda (Munda)	3
Michael	7	Argenta	2
Jo: Dominicus	6	Augustina	2
Bartolomeus	5	Francisca	2
Ignatius	5	Imperia	2
Laurencius (Laurentius)	5	Pasqua (Pascha)	2
Vincencius (Vincentius)	5	Petronilla	2
Antonius	4	Romana	2
Blasius	4	Scholastica	2
Lucas	4	Agata	1
Simon	4	Aloysia	1
Angelus	3	Andre ana	1
Carolus	3	Anna Maria	1
Damianus	3	Antonia	1
Filippus (Philippus)	3	Barbara	1
Jo: Baptista	3	Camilla	1
Jo: Petrus	3	C’lena	1
Leonardus	3	Cleria	1
Pasqualis	3	Evangelista	1
Theramus	3	Flaminia	1
Bernardus	2	Galicia	1
Franciscus	2	Innocencia	1
Geronimus	2	Laurencia	1
Joachim	2	Linora	1
Jo: Lucas	2	Madalena	1
Julianus	2	Monica	1
Matthias	2	Natalia	1
Sebastian us	2	Rosa	1
Aloncius	1	Sapencia	1
Ambrogius	1	Valencia	1
Augustinus	1	Venera	1
Baldasar	1	Vittoria	1
Benedictus	1
Cirillus	1
Constantinus	1
David	1
Jo: Andreas	1
Jo: Vincencius	1
Lazarus	1
Lucius	1
Marcellus	1
Marinus	1
Martius	1
Petrus Paulus	1
Publius	1
Valerius	1
Victorius	1

REFERENCES

84. See pp. 92-98.
85. For this chapter I have consulted the two articles by G. Wettinger, “The Distribution of Surnames in Malta in 1419 and the 1480s,” Journal of Maltese Studies, 1968, No. 5; and “The Militia List of 1419-20,” Melita Historica, 1969, Vol. 5, No. 2.
86. A.P.M., D.L, I (1612-1640), p. 57.
87. A.P.M., B.L. II (1630-1697), f. 1v.
88. A.P.M., M.L. I (1611-1701), p. 48.
89. The popularity of the name Dominicus was probably the result of the devotion to the Holy Rosary, which was spread by St. Dominic of Guzman. It must be remembered that in the parish church of Mosta there was a Confraternity and an altar dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary (see p. 76).
90. See Table XIX, pp. 99-101.
91. A.P.M., D.L. I (1612-1640), p. 85.

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Other Chapters from this Dissertation

• Chapter 1 - Background
• Chapter 2 - Population Growth
• Chapter 3 - Economy
• Chapter 4 - Socio-Religious Life
• Chapter 5 - Names / Surnames Analysis
• Chapter 6 - Conclusion
• Bibliography