At just four months old, little Celle Melfi is already making quite a name for himself.
Actually, it’s the name his parents, Brantford native Josh Melfi and Marshneill Abraham, thing for him that soon will make the infant an honorary citizen of Celle di San Vito, a town in the province of Foggia of the Apulia region in southern Italy.
With a population of fewer than 200 people, Celle di San Vito is by far the smallest municipality in Apulia.
Melfi’s grandfather, Leonardo Melfi, was born in Celle di San Vito in 1933. His grandmother, Lucia Patierno, is from the neighboring town of Castellucio Valmaggoire,
“We went there in 2014 for a wedding,” Abraham explained. “Josh wanted to see the place where his grandparents were born. We kept hearing the name Celle (pronounced Chell-e in Italian). Maybe it was the nice weather and the red wine, but I said to Josh that if we ever have a baby we should name him Celle.”
Melfi, a project manager for an advertising agency, and Abraham, who works in public relations, married in 2018. On Dec. 21, 2021, their son was born and the couple went through with their plan, naming him Celle Ren Melfi.
“We wanted to do something to honor my grandparents but something a little less conventional than naming him after his grandfather,” said Melfi.
That, they thought, was that.
But when news of this small act of homage back in Canada reached Palma Maria Giannini, mayor of Celle di San Vito, she was thrilled.
“A news as unexpected as it is curious and welcome,” she declared in a publication called FoggiaToday. “Next December, on the occasion of his first birthday, we will deliver honorary citizenship to little Celle, an event that fills me with joy and pride.”
Melfi, Abraham and about a dozen family members will be traveling to Celle di San Vito in August for a ceremony.
They’re calling it a “Celle-a-bration.”
“With everything that’s going on in the world, it’s a nice, feel-good story,” said Abraham. “We find this whole series of events so special because Celle di San Vito is where the Melfi family story begins and, in a way, that origin story now continues on through the birth and naming of our son.”
Brantford has a strong link to Celle di San Vito. Many of its residents, including Melfi’s grandparents emigrated to the area in the 1950s.
According to Wikipedia, unlike the residents of many bordering towns, people of Celle di San Vito speak a rare dialect of the Franco-Provencal language, which has fewer than 1,400 known speakers. That dialect is still represented in Brantford but it’s disappearing. As of 2012, the number of daily speakers had dwindled to fewer than 50 spread over three generations.
Melfi and Abraham, who live in Hamilton, said they are “shocked and thrilled” by the attention their baby has generated. But they joke they’re now getting pressured to name future children after other far-flung locales.
“Maybe Amalfi Coast, Barcelona or even Paris,” said Abraham.