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Napoleone is an Italian male given name. St. Napoleone of Alexandria, alternatively rendered as Neopulus, Neopolus, Neopolis or Neópolo, whose feast day is August 15, was martyred during the early fourth century during the Diocletianic Persecution.

Gabriele Rosa (1858) followed G. F. Zanetti (1751) in accepting the meaning as "nose of lion", though this etymology is viewed sceptically in later sources such as Pio Rajna (1891).

The form Napoleone is found as early as Napoleone Orsini Frangipani (1263–1342), a Roman Cardinal. Rosa (1858) identified the name from 1240 as a nickname of a member of the Della Torre family of Valsassina.

The French equivalent is Napoléon, anglicised Napoleon. The most famous holder of the Italian and French versions, with whom the name became virtually synonymous, was Napoléon Bonaparte (1769–1821), christened Napoleone di Buonaparte (Nabulione di Buonaparte according to old Corsican spelling). Damiano Morali (1847) identified the given name Napoleone having first entered the Italian Buonaparte family in 1648.

Notable people

• Luca Napoleone (born 1993), Belgian footballer
• Napoleone Angiolini (1797–1871), Italian painter
• Napoleone Boni (1863–1927), Italian painter
• Napoleone Colajanni (1847–1921), Italian writer, journalist, criminologist, socialist and politician
• Napoleone Comitoli (1548–1624), Roman Catholic prelate
• Napoleone della Torre (died 1278), Italian nobleman
• Napoleone Ferrara (born 1956), Italian-American molecular biologist
• Napoleone Moriani (1808–1878), Italian operatic tenor
• Napoleone Nani (1841–1899), Italian painter
• Napoleone Orsini (disambiguation), multiple people
• Napoleone Orsini Frangipani (1263–1342), Roman cardinal
• Napoleone Parisani (1854–1932), Italian landscape and portrait painter
• Napoleone Pini (1835–1907), Italian zoologist and paleontologist
• Napoleone Sommaruga (1848–1906), Italian painter
• Napoleone Verga (1833–1916), Italian painter

References

1. Rajna, Pio, L'etimologia e la storia arcaica del nome Napoleone in Archivio storico italiano, Volume 5, 1891, p.89. La lettura: rivista mensile del "Corriere della sera.", 1903, p. 411. "Napoleone degli Orsini (incisione del secolo XVI). ... Non sono mancati i filologi cortigiani che in Napoleone hanno visto un naso di leone, un fratello dunque dell' Armaleone umbro del milledugento, " Bulletin de la Classe des lettres et des sciences morales, 1936. "... Italie, depuis le XII° siècle, le nom-protée de Napoleone, Neapoleo, Neapuleo, Neapoleon, Napuleone, Neapoleonus, ... il y a l'imagination d'un antiquaire italien du XVIII° siècle, G. -F. Zanetti; Napo-leone = Naso di leone, comme Coleone ..."
2. Rosa, Gabriele. Dialetti, costumi e tradizioni delle provincie di Bergamo, 1858, p.48. "Napa, bres. - grande naso. Si dice anche napo e canipa, ναποσ ( napos ) - valle, bosco, onde le ninfe Napee. Da napo venne il sopranome Napoleone ( naso di leone ) che già nel 1240 portava uno dei Della Torre di Valsassina, e che è antico pure nella famiglia di Bonaparte, della quale il sig. De Stefani nel 1854 trovò a Treviso molti documenti dal 1100 al 1300."
3. Bingham, Denis Arthur. Napoleon Bonaparte A selection from the letters and despatches of the first Napoleon, 1884, 1178422135, p.3. "In 1766 came a daughter, who also died young; and in 1768 a third child, who was christened Nabulione. ... there was a fraudulent substitution; that Nabulione, or rather Napoleon, was born at Corte in 1768, and Joseph at Ajaccio in 1769."
4. Lepage, Jean-Denis G.G. French Fortifications, 1715-1815: An Illustrated History, 2009, 0786458070, p.17. "... Nabulione di Buonaparte (in Corsican), who later adopted the more French-sounding Napoléon Bonaparte, was born in Ajaccio..."
5. Morali, Damiano. Storia genealogica della famiglia Bonaparte, dalla sua origine fino all'estinzione del ramo gia esistente nella città di S. Miniato, 1847, p.68. "come è stato asserito da uno scrittore oltramontano dei Fasti Napoleonici; ed anche riportato in alcune recenti memorie, nelle quali dicesi che ai secondogeniti imponevasi sempre il nome Napoleone in onoranza della rammentata famiglia."

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• Italian masculine given names
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