What is "napoleone"

Napoleone is an Italian male given name.

The given name is found as early as Napoleone Orsini Frangipani (1263-1342) a Roman Cardinal. Gabriele Rosa (1858) identified the name from 1240 as a nickname of a member of the Della Torre family of Valsassina. Rosa 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 most famous holder of the name, with whom the name became virtually synonymous, was Napoléon Bonaparte (1769-1821), christened Napoleone di Buonaparte (Nabulione di Buonaparte according to Corsican spelling). Damiano Morali (1847) identified the given name Napoleone having first entered the Italian Buonaparte family in 1648.