Mick Aneworderfan wrote: Gino is definitely a very common Italian name (that woman was quite ignorant). Yes, it's a diminutive of Luigi (Luigi : Luigino : Gino, that's how it evolved), but has become a name of its own and many are named just Gino. It's the same with Gianni (from Giovanni) or, more similarly to our example, Nino (Giovanni : Giovannino : Nino) and Pino (Giuseppe : Giuseppino : Pino), it can happen that diminutives become proper names, a bit like in England or America you can be named not with the full name Michael but also just Mike or Mick, only this time the diminutive is made of the last bit of the original name...
BREAKING NEWS!!! The name "Sireno" exists in Italian as well!
It's just fookin rare! (never heard it before) Reference: http://www.santiebeati.it/nomi/Detailed/3624.html I'll translate for you: Derived from Greek, in Latin became Sirenus, means "very sweet singer". Celebrated on February 23rd in memory of Saint Sireno, monk and martyr. I also see it's a surname which is rather common, though not in the region where I live: http://www.google.it/search?hl=it&q=Sireno&meta=lr%3Dlang_it
Thanks Mick! 
More questions: Are you familiar with the Italian film Sud? Do you know if there's a soundtrack CD available?
Also, what do you think about the group Prozac+? I bought their CD (acido acida) when I was in Italy, and really enjoyed it. What do you think of them? Are their other Italian groups that you would recommend?
Finally, if I remember correctly, Italy has a holdiday coming up in April-- is that right?
