Of Latin and ancient Roman origin.
Italian form of Valentine.
From the Roman family Valentinus, derived from the Latin word “valens”, meaning strong and healthy, vigorous.
Associated with “Valentine’s Day”, connected with “Valentine of Rome” and “Valentine of Terni”, especially after Geoffrey Chaucer’s dream vision poem “The Parliament of Fowls”.
Other forms of the name are Valentine, Val, Valentin, Ualan, Folant.
Feminine forms of the name are Valentina, Val, Valina, Tina, etc.
Valentino is ranked #92 in Croatia, #102 in Italy and #661 in the U.S.A.
Famous bearers are Valentino Rossi, Valentino Garavani, Valentino Bompiani, Valentino Mazzola.
Additional information concerning the Ancient Roman naming system:
According to the Roman naming rules, the basic elements of Roman names were three. A “praenomen”, a “nomen”, and a “cognomen”.
A “praenomen” was the first name, indicating the personal name.
A “nomen” was the second name, indicating the ‘gens’ to which the bearer of the name belonged to. Gens, meaning the group of families sharing a common “nomen”.
“Nomen” would stand as the group of loosely connected families claiming common ancestors. “Nomen” were always patrilinear, meaning from the father.
A “cognomen” was the third name and was something like the surname. Cognomina (plural of cognomen) were usually inherited. They were rarely given to the bearer by general consensus by the prominent members of the community.
There were several types of “cognomina”, such as geographical, adoptive, occupational, etc. In very rare cases the “cognomina” could be metronymic, meaning from the mother’s “nomen”.