Meaning: Its source is a Latin expression meaning "Home people."

Languages: This girl's name was used in Latin.

Narrative: This was the tribal name of the people who first inhabited the cluster of islands eventually known as Venice. They gathered there to escape the barbarian invasions that plagued the Italian peninsula after the fall of Rome.

By 700 A.D. the first doge, or chief magistrate, was presiding over Venice's government. So began the commercial and political rise of the Venetian Republic, a powerful city-state that lasted well into the 16th century.