1. Introduction
2. Some random thoughts
3. Organization of Maltese family names
4. Hull's theory on the Girgenti colony
5. First censuses and classification of names
6. The 2005 census and the most common Maltese names
7. The pantheon of Maltese family names
8. Frequency by location
9. An overview of Gozo
10. The parallel 'Australian' sample
11. Cognates and doublets
12. Multiple names
13. Disappeared names

The parallel 'Australian' sample

by Mario CASSAR

In the middle and subsequent decades of the 20th century Malta faced the opportunities and challenges of migration when thousands of Maltese left the country to seek a better life abroad. The Maltese diaspora is now found in countries as far away as Australia, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and elsewhere (68). This has led to the creation of the concept called "Greater Malta", rooted in the sense of belonging and inclusion within the national consciousness.

According to various estimates, there are between 150,000 and 300,000 Australians of Maltese origin living in Australia today (69) of whom, according to a recent estimate, about 43,000 were born in Malta (70). This immigrant community represents by far the largest community of Maltese origin outside Malta in the entire world. Since the peak period from the mid-1950s to the late 1970s, the Malta-born population has both declined and aged. Most of them have lived in Australia for more than 15 years and over 70% have taken Australian citizenship, with Victoria and New South Wales attracting by far the largest number of Malta-born persons (71). Since the early 1990s, however, migration has dwindled dramatically; the annual number of admissions from the Maltese archipelago is now in double digits, and an immediate increase seems unlikely in the foreseeable future (72).

Mark Caruana, a Maltese emigrant in Australia, conducted statistical research on the frequency of Maltese family names specifically in that country which is often cited as the second home of the Maltese. He compiled his list from data listed in the 1998 national telephone directory. The results are as follows:

1. Vella – 1,850
2. Borg – 1,810
3. Camilleri – 1,339
4. Galea – 1,106
5. Farrugia – 1,073
6. Zammit- – 1,012
7. Attard – 913
8. Grech – 854
9. Micallef – 831
10. Spiteri – 809
11. Muscat – 809
12. Cassar – 762
13. Azzopardi – 702
14. Mifsud – 691
15. Pace – 687
16. Caruana – 629
17. Gauci – 627
18. Portelli – 511
19. Gatt – 504
20. Schembri – 481

The most apparent and admittedly fascinating observation one can make is that this inventory almost mirrors the frequency list from the local 2005 Census. This intriguing symmetry simply confirms that the large families of Malta are fundamentally also those that dominate in Australia. To put it another way, the microcosmic sampling of Maltese emigrants in Australia has proven to be an almost perfect replica of the local anthroponymic scenario. The top ten in Malta is incredibly the same top ten in Australia, showing only a slightly different ranking. Of the 20 most widespread names locally, 17 appear in the Australian list. The three anomalous names (Gauci, Gatt, and Portelli), are, after all, respectively ranked 22nd, 24th, and 32nd in Malta. Portelli is incidentally the fifth most common name in Gozo.

Speaking of the Maltese names below, it is interesting to note that some of them have undergone a process of anglicization. That this should be the case should not cause surprise. The new environment which has massively transformed Australian customs and habits through community life, education, and mixed marriages also extends its influence to seemingly innocuous and tiny details such as the identification labels used as family names. Through the application of the law of least effort, it has always been customary to shorten long names. If a family name is a compound, it is reasonable to reduce it to one of the two elements that compose it. In this way, Pardy was extracted from Azzopardi. The same principle applies to multi-syllable family names, explaining the transformation of Buttigieg into Butt. In some cases, the alteration only involved the dropping of a final vowel as in Abel (< Abela) and Frend (< Frendo). Phonetic spellings were also in evidence: Sherry (< Scerri), Albany (< Albani), Coster (< Costa). However, in some cases, the change involved varying degrees of arbitrariness as in Baldwin (< Baldacchino), Atkinson (< Aquilina), Bonney (< Bonnici), Bayard (< Bajada), Mack (< Magro), and Finch (< Fenech) (73).

The anglicization of Maltese (and by default Italian) names is achieved through the action of two strong forces converging toward the same goal from opposite directions. One force represents the non-Maltese neighbors, employers, foremen, and co-workers, who, consciously or unconsciously in speech or writing, make Maltese patronyms conform to English linguistic patterns, spelling, or to the names of individuals or types of names with which they happen to be already familiar. The other force represents the settlers of Maltese origin who deliberately change their names or tolerate the modifications made by outsiders as a concession to their new environment. There are, of course, certain people who feel that the anglicized name will eliminate the obstacle of prejudice they might encounter in their social or business dealings, and some who mistakenly think that an anglicized name will make them better Australians.

Text published with the kind permission of Mario CASSAR

1. Introduction
2. Some random thoughts
3. Organization of Maltese family names
4. Hull's theory on the Girgenti colony
5. First censuses and classification of names
6. The 2005 census and the most common Maltese names
7. The pantheon of Maltese family names
8. Frequency by location
9. An overview of Gozo
10. The parallel 'Australian' sample
11. Cognates and doublets
12. Multiple names
13. Disappeared names