And one thing that puzzled me was the spelling of Chief’s last name in the media after his suicide, “De Nardo”, which my rudimentary knowledge of the romance languages indicated as an intentionally changed spelling of Denardo, as we have spelled the Chief’s name here on Slabbed. First up is some linguistic research and for that I used House of Names:
The Denardo surname was a patronymic name, created from the personal name Nardo, which was in turn, a shortened form of Bernardo.
Denardo Early Origins
The surname Denardo was first found in the Kingdom of Naples, formerly Napoli or Neapolis, in southern Italy. There is also a city of Nardò in the province of Lecce, that dates from the Baroque era. Belisario Acquaviva, a nobleman and writer from the Kingdom of Naples became the first Duke of Nardo (Duca di Nardò) in the 15th century.Denardo Spelling Variations
Spelling variations of this family name include: Di Nardi, Di Nardo, Nardo, Nardone, Nardini, Nardi, Nardis, Nordi, Nordine, Nardino
It no secret that Chief was ethically Italian which is why I wondered why his spelling of his surname would the use the French preposition “de” instead of the Italian equivalent “di” as shown above at House of Names. Maybe Chief changed how he spelled his last name after landing in some hot water over in St Tammany because in the Bay he did spell it “De Nardo”? Or maybe it was another reason. Whatever the reason, there is a younger man by the same name in Wallkill New York that uses the conventional spelling and I have a few press reports that illustrate it.
Head of Wallkill Fire District board charged with stealing nearly $240K from district coffers ~ William J. Kemble Continue reading “What’s in the spelling of a surname: No detail is too small to pass over right now in the Bay”