Amerigo Bonasera: I dont think "Amerigo" is coincidence.
America is named after Amerigo Vespucci. Bonasera's first name is Amerigo and he believes in america.....coincidence?

What other names can you think of?

Moe Green : green = dollars?

Fredo: = afraid (ok, maybe a little farfetched but still....


can u guys think of any other meanings of names in the GF trilogy?

I don't believe any of the following had any intended meanings, but...

"Vito" is derived from the Latin "vita", meaning life.
"Luca" is derived from the Latin "lux", meaning light. (He was hardly an enlightened character).

The name Michael in literature is sometines a biblical allusion to St. Michael, the arch-angel while Thomas (Hagen) sometimes alludes to the apostle, who doubted the Resurrection until he actually saw Jesus (Doubting Thomas). I don't think that Puzo was going for any of these meanings necessarily although Bonasera's name is no coincidence. Roughly translated it means, "Things will be good in America."

Hyman = Hymen

Pent angeli

Five Angels

Did some research on the name 'Emilio' which is the first name of Don Barzini.

The Italian name Emilio is the Italian form of Aemilius, which was derived from the latin aemulus, which means 'rival.'

Coure is heart, in Italian. Thus, the name Corleone could be read to mean lion heart. Again, I don't know that any such meaning was intended by Puzo.

Frederico means : fridu = the peace, the protection, the safety; rihhi=rich, powerful, the power, the ruler.

Maybe the first part of his name; peaceful, safety.

But surely not the second part!


Don Cardi

Santino = Little Saint , which Sonny hardly was. Did Puzo understand the Irony.

Apollonia is a female derivative of the name Apollo (piu greca)

Virgil (Solozzo's first name ) is the name of the Roman Poet, who also was Dante's guide in the Inferno.

Clemenza = Clemency, mercy

Tessio in common Italian parlance is a ticket...

I've always thought Bonasera's name to sound like "buona sera", Italian for "good night". This could be associated with his career as an undertaker.

And I know for a fact there's meaning behind Khartoum's name. Based from a battle in the Sudanese capital which bares the same name. It's in "The Godfather Legacy", which I have in storage right now with a majority of my other books. Would anyone else be willing to cover this?

According to Lebo, the British commander of Khartoum (in the Sudan) was captured by Sudanese Muslims and beheaded in 1885. They carried his head on a pole through the streets.

[quote= They carried his head on a pole through the streets.

[/quote]

As opposed to carrying his head through a hole in the sheets