Résumé
Disdemona, the only proper name in the tale III 7 of Giovan Battista Giraldi Cinthio’s Hechatommiti, is nevertheless emblematic of the author’s onomastic practice, since it alludes to the main theme of the story: that of fate, understood as the sum of the influences that family environment, social stereotypes and race can have on the individual’s life. A deeper look shows that around the same theme gravitates also the epithet of the male character: ‘the Moor’, who then becomes Othello in Shakespeare’s transposition, taking shape as well as a resounding ‘failed’ name.