Allonimia: dai Quartieri napoletani a Forio d’Ischia

In Western societies nicknames are the only vital and creative type of anthropic naming. Being more transparent than surnames, they identify the relationship between the individual and the group through their connotative function. In some cases, nicknames have ended up being a sort of parallel registry office (e.g. in Chioggia, to a lesser extent in Forio d’Ischia) as is shown by the still widespread display of funeral posters in restricted areas of the urban territory (e.g. in popular Neapolitan ‘Quarters’) and on the isles of Procida, and Ischia. The nicknames of the deceased, which refer to their jobs, physical or moral qualities, origins etc. (bsniss ‘business’, chiappin ‘cunning’, chianchiere ‘butcher’, vrnaiola ‘fodder seller’) point to the relationship between inhabitants and territory, and give a glimpse of the microeconomy within “restricted” urban networks. These nicknames, whose motivations will be discussed, allow us to describe the city through its inhabitants, as they preserve both natural and anthropic signs of time.