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According to the sources, referred in Wikipedia article about Umberto Eco, a writer and philosopher, explained the origin of his family name as follows:

Towards the end of his life, Eco came to believe that his family name was an acronym of ex caelis oblatus (from Latin: a gift from the heavens). As was the custom at the time, the name had been given to his grandfather (a foundling) by an official in city hall. In a 2011 interview, Eco explained that a friend happened to come across the acronym on a list of Jesuit acronyms in the Vatican Library, informing him of the likely origin of the name.

I'm failing, however, to find confirmation to this anywhere beyond Eco's self-evidence. What was the exact list of the acronyms? How many other Ecos are in Italy, did this last name indeed prevails among foundlings? Why the foundling hadn't actually get the last name of the family that adopted him?

In other words, quite frankly, I find this story quite suspicious, I failed to find any evidence by myself so I'm requesting the help of this community.

So, to reiterate, here's my question: Do we have any documental evidence that a) This Eco last name was indeed used for orphans in general by Catholic church and b) This is exactly the Umberto Eco's case in particular

shabunc
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  • The practice of giving foundlings such names is well documented, and many of these children would have grown up in orphanages. There may not have been any "family that adopted him" from which to take a different surname. – phoog Aug 21 '23 at 14:41
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    @phoog says "*The practice of giving foundlings such names is well documented*". Do you have a link for this? – Ray Butterworth Aug 21 '23 at 14:53
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    According to [Forebears.io's *Eco Surname Origin, Meaning & Last Name History*](https://forebears.io/surnames/eco), only 1 person in 5 million in Italy has the name, not quite making the list of top-ten countries, of which Philippines has by far the greatest incidence. ¶ That of course neither denies nor confirms the acronym origin. – Ray Butterworth Aug 21 '23 at 14:55
  • If we agree that the acronym of ***e**x **c**aelis **o**blatus* is ECO, then the question in the title is already answered. If the question is: "Was the motivation of the unnamed individual who selected the name to symbolise the phrase?" it is off-topic, because there is no way to empirically prove someone's motivation. – Oddthinking Aug 21 '23 at 14:56
  • @Oddthinking can you please elaborate what details I need to add for clarity? It's in my own interests to make this question on-topic and consistent. My question is - do we have any documental evidence that a) This Eco last name was indeed used for orphans in general and b) This is exactly the Umberto Eco's case in particular – shabunc Aug 21 '23 at 15:22
  • @Oddthinking I've edited the question. Is it enough? The question is surprisingly not about whether Eco is an acronym for "ex caelis oblatus" and but about documental evidence to the claim Eco made. – shabunc Aug 21 '23 at 15:26
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    @shabunc: Based on your update, I believe this is a simple misreading of some unclear wording on Wikipedia. "As was the custom at the time, the name had been given to his grandfather (a foundling) by an official in city hall" means the custom was for the official to assign a name of their choice, not to assign the surname *Eco* to all orphans. This is clearer by following the Wikipedia link and reading the cited interview."Sometimes there were very sadistic officials who gave terrible names, but we had no way to know why this man had chosen “Eco,” [...]" – Oddthinking Aug 21 '23 at 16:40
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    @Oddthinking That last comment sounds like an answer to me: unknown. Many names do have a traceable etymology, so the question isn't itself unreasonable. – Laurel Aug 21 '23 at 20:30
  • @Laurel: We don't yet have a notable claim. No-one is claiming that the name Eco was used for orphans generally. The quote from Eco that I excerpted (to show that different orphans were given different names) in context says that he thinks his grandfather's surname came from the acronym found by his researcher friend. – Oddthinking Aug 22 '23 at 02:39
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    @RayButterworth https://religionunplugged.com/news/2019/5/29/what-the-pro-life-movement-looked-like-in-the-12th-13th-century https://surnamesinitaly.com/italian-surnames-of-orphans-and-foundlings/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esposito – phoog Aug 22 '23 at 10:39
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    There seem to be two unquestionable facts here: that Eco's grandfather had been given his name by a city official, and that ECO is a Jesuit abbreviation of *ex caelis oblatus*. Everything else is an extrapolation on the part of Umberto Eco, and so we can't expect to find documented evidence for it. – Peter Shor Aug 24 '23 at 11:22
  • @PeterShor Exactly. I guess Umberto wanted to give some meaning to his surname different from just the literal meaning of "echo" (which I'd argue by Occam's razor is a more likely explanation for the name... maybe his grandfather was a child that continuously repeated what other people said therefore was named "eco" by the official). In any case, unless some new document is discovered there is no way to link the two facts. – Bakuriu Aug 26 '23 at 13:18

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