Italian Girl Names for Your Little Bambina - Real Mom Recs

Italian Girl Names for Your Little Bambina

Whether you want to honor your family’s heritage, or just enjoy their melodic and feminine style, Italian girl names are a popular choice both in the U.S. and abroad.

 

You can stick with the Italian theme whether you’re looking for a more popular name like Sofia or Mia, or a stand-out name like Lorenza or Maddalena.

Or, be even more authentic by choosing a name that is currently popular for baby girls in Italy but is nowhere to be found here across the pond (yet!). Ginevra, anyone?

Celebrities who have used Italian girl names

Italian names are a favorite among celebrities, including:

  • Salma Hayek with Valentina
  • Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner with Serafina
  • Matt Damon went with Italian names for all his girls: Isabella, Gia, and Stella
  • Mario Lopez also has a daughter named Gia (short form of Giovanna/Gianna)
  • Claudia Schiffer’s daughter Cosima
  • Kevin Jonas went with an Italian double-header for his baby girl Valentina Angelina

Pronounciation considerations

Keep in mind that Italian pronunciation is different than English (if you are familiar with vowel sounds in Spanish, they are similar in Italian). For example Camilla could be pronounce with a short “I” sound in English, but in Italian it’s said “Cah-MEE-la”.

Another rule of thumb in Italian is that the letter C followed by an e or i makes the C pronounced “ch”. So Marcella is pronounced “Mar-CHEL-la”, not “Mar-SEL-la”.

Lastly, the letter combination “Gi” is the equivalent the English letter “J”. So Giulia is essentially Julia, and Gianna pronounced “Ji-ahn-na”.

Italian Girl Names List

Italian girl names

Adelina “noble”

Alessia “defender of mankind”

Angelina “God’s messenger”

Antonia “priceless, praiseworthy”

Aria “air” or “melody”

Arianna “the holiest one”

Aurelia “golden”

Aurora “sunrise”

Bianca “white, shining”

Camilla “Priest’s attendant”

Cara “darling”

Carina “little darling”

Carmela “garden”

Cassandra “shine upon mankind”

Chiara “bright, clear”

Concetta “pure”

Cosima “order, beauty”

Damiana “the taming one”

Daria “owner of goodness”

Delia “woman from Delos”

Elena “shining light”

Eleonora “bright, shining one”

Emilia “competitor, rival”

Eugenia “woman well-born”

Evelina “wished-for child”

Fabiola “lovely bean”

Faustina “the lucky one”

Filippa “lover of horses”

Flavia “golden, blond”

Flora “flower”

Francesca “woman from France”

Gabriella “God is my strength”

Gaia “from Gaeta”

Giada “jade”

Ginevra “fair one”

Giorgia “farmer”

Giovanna “God is gracious”

Giulia soft-haired”

Giustina “fair, rightful”

Gloria “woman of glory”

Isabella “promise of God”

Italian girl names

Ladonna “ladylike”

Lorena “woman from Lorraine”

Lorenza “laurel tree”

Luciana “light of the day”

Maddalena “woman of the high tower”

Marcella “warlike”

Marina “from the shore”

Mattea “gift of God”

Mia “mine; bitter”

Micaela “who is like God”

Milana “from Milan”

Mirabella “wonderful”

Noemi “my delight”

Oriana “golden”

Ottavia “eight”

Paola “tiny, petite”

Perla “gemstone”

Pia “pious”

Priscilla “old fashioned, ancient”

Raffaella “God heals”

Regina “queen”

Renata “reborn”

Rosalia “beautiful rose”

Rosetta “rose blossom”

Rufina “woman with red hair”

Sabina “from the Sabine tribe”

Serafina “ardent”

Serena “placid, calm”

Siena “from Siena (a city in Tuscany)”

Sofia “wisdom”

Stella “like a star”

Italian girl names

Teresa “harvest”

Valentina “healthy and strong”

Venetia “from Venetia”

Verona “from Verona”

Vincenza “conquerer”

Violetta “violet”

Vittoria “conqueror”

Viviana “victor”

Which of these Italian girl names is YOUR favorite? Let us know in the comments!

When naming our second daughter, we wanted to use family names and Carmela was all over our family tree. We decided to put a little spin on it and use the diminutive “Carmelina” for her middle name. Another fun option that works with a lot of Italian names!

Or, if it turns out these aren’t your style, browse our list unique baby names or these old-fashioned names!

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Italian girl names

Author

Adoptive mom, biological mom, slacker mom, Disney mom, and above all things a REAL mom. Fan of blogging, sleeping, and pretending not to hear my kids fight.

11 comments

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  4. Mi abuela se llamaba Marcela , mi tia abuela Teresa y yo Adriana, modificados al Español sin saber su origen Italiano.

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  6. That’s a great post!
    But some of these names are pretty old fashioned and aren’t really used with newborns nowadays. Ladonna absolutely isn’t an Italian name, and Verona, Vicenza and Venezia are town’s name… Sooo it would be like naming your daughter “Madrid”, Berlin, Milwaukee or whatever.
    Btw love how you explained different pronunciation!
    Greetings from Italy xx

  7. That’s not how you pronounce Gianna. It’s more like Ji-na. Think about how Gianni is pronounced (like Johnny with a strong emphasis on the first syllable), but change the I to an A sound.

    1. Thanks for reading and contributing, Stevie! I know a couple Giannas who pronounce it Ji-AH-na, but you’re correct the traditional pronunciation would be closer to JHA-na.

  8. I came here to say the same thing about Gianna. My name is Giannina. The i is always silent in the beginning. To say it Gee-Anna is just the Americanized version of Gianna. It’s literally the female version of the word John.

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