What's In A Name?
by William J. Girimonti III
When I first started in genealogical research I quickly came across
something I did not expect: variations in the spelling of our family's
name. The most common variation that I found was Girimonte.
I first learned of this when looking through the New York City Telephone
Directory. I found equal numbers of Girimonti's and Girimonte's
which confused me at the time. Having a fair working knowledge of
the Italian language, I translated my name to it's English meaning
which is "Around the Mountains." The other name means
essentially the same thing, but the last word is "Mountain"
instead of "Mountains" In Italian, the 'E' at the end
denotes a singular noun, and the 'I', it's plural. As time progressed,
I met with some of the Girimonte's. I learned how all the Girimonte's
and Girimonti's in the New York Area were related. It turns out
that my great-great-grandfather, Beniamino
Girimonti, had five children. All of his children, except one,
spelled their name as I do. The child who spelled his name differently,
was William
Girimonte. Almost all of the Girimonte's in New York are descended
from him. This raised another question in my mind, "Why did
he change it?" To this very day, I still do not know the reason.
My trips to Italy
My research eventually pointed toward Italy. I checked some records
for Italy and found both spellings were common there also. They
where equal in number and all located in one area about 50 square
kilometers wide. I was beginning to think that they were actually
two separate and distinct families until I took the trip myself
to a small town named Zinga. This is where my great-grandfather,
Francesco
Girimonti, was born in 1885. While I was there, I only found
one Girimonti that was still alive--her name is Maria
Girimonti. I asked her about the two spellings and was shocked
at her reply. According to Maria, a long time ago, there was a big
dispute within the family. It grew until one part of the family
wanted no association with the other part, and changed the way they
spelled their name by changing the last letter. In Italy this has
the effect of severing all ties between the people involved and
effectively "creates" another family altogether. Only
one question remains. . .which one was the original? Maria was not
able to answer that. All she could do was guess that her's was the
correct spelling. Another story I have been told which bears a striking
resemblance to the above account, was told to me by Charles
Girimont from Hillsboro, Ohio. He spoke with his older sister
asked about some of the stories their father would tell them when
they were younger. She reminded him of a story in which their father,
Michael
Dominic Girimonti, was only about eight years old. In this particular
story, Michael recalled an argument between his father, and his
father's brothers which was centered on a land dispute. The tensions
and tempers rose and split the family. They all went their own seperate
ways and settled in other towns. These may very well be two accounts
of the same story.
On a subsequent trip to Italy, I found references to the surname
Ierimonte
which was used interchangeably with Girimonte for some people within
their vital records. It appears that Ierimonte may have been an
older version of our name and quite possibly the original spelling.
Further investigation shows that Ierimonte pre-dates Girimonte back
to the 1600's. So, even in Italy, we see the periodic mutation
of our surname.
As a researcher, it is my responsibility to be as objective as
possible, so I am not making any assumptions as to the original
spelling until conclusive evidence is found to determine the true
origins. As I dig deeper I am sure to come across the answer in
due course.
My television debut
In December of 1992, I was stationed at Griffiss AFB in Rome, New
York. With the holiday season looming around the corner, and with
a desire to do good, myself and six other military people organized
a charity luncheon that was to feed 70 families. All was progressing
on schedule, but then the Channel 2 News Team from Utica, New York
arrived and did a feature on us. I was interviewed and it was aired
on the evening news. Ten minutes after it had aired, I received
a telephone call from a woman named Ann
Girmonde. She explained that she saw me on the evening news
and was surprised at how similar our names are. I met with her son,
Michael and learned some very important information. His great-grand
father, Joseph
Girimonti, came to the United States from Scandale, Italy. Upon
his entrance to the USA, immigration officials, unfamiliar with
Italian names, misspelled his name when writing it down. The misspelled
name stuck with him and all his descendants carry it as their own.
Spelling variations
After this discovery, I decided to do a worldwide check on any names
that bore any resemblance to my own. I did this through a number
of sources, and when I was done, I was amazed at what I found. There
were many more variations including: Ierimonti, Germonde, Germanti,
Geremonte, Geremonti, Gerimonti, Giramonti, Giriminde, Girmonde,
Girimont, and Girimonto. Of these spelling variations, Girimont
was the one found most often within the United States. I contacted
Victor
Girimont from Cleveland, Ohio and learned that his name, too,
was originally Girimonti, but was changed upon entrance to the United
States or shortly thereafter. It is believed that the reason was
because it was easier finding a job with a French-sounding name
than an Italian one. This can be related to the widespread discrimination
against the Italians and other immigrants during this time period.
As for the other names, Germanti and Geremonti were found in the
1920 New York State Census, there were a fair number Giramonti's
in Italy, a Giriminde was found in Hungary, and Gaetano Girimonto
(1884-1963), who lived in Pennsylvania, was found in Social Security
records (Last letter probably a typographical error... more likely
an 'I' at the end considering it's location on a typewriter). I
have already looked into the remainder of these names, and my findings
are available in our Family Tree.
As you know, many things in our world evolve with time...surprisingly
enough, our family's name is not exempt from evolution. What an
interesting discovery this was!
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