Did you know that Mozart’s middle name — Amadeus — may have originated as a joke? Turns out there’s a whole Wikipedia article about Mozart’s name.
Apparently Mozart went by many different names over the course of his life. “This resulted partly from the church traditions of the day, and partly from the fact that Mozart was multilingual and freely adapted his name to other languages.”
His birth certificate reads, “Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart”
- Joannes Chrysostomus is his saint’s name since he was born on the feast day of St. John Chrysostom (January 27)
- Wolfgangus is the Latin form of Wolfgang, the name of Mozart’s maternal grandfather
- Theophilus was one of the names of Mozart’s godfather
The middle name that we commonly associate with Mozart is Amadeus, the Latin form of Theophilus, meaning “lover of God” or “loved by God.” Mozart also went by Gottlieb, the German form of the same name.
The particular form “Amadeus” may have originated as a facetious name, when Mozart jokingly signed a letter, “Wolfgangus Amadeus Mozartus.” (He also liked to spell his name backwards in “playful letters of his youth.”)
During his lifetime Mozart went by Wolfgango Amadeo and then Wolfgang Amade (with or without an accent on the final letter). Soon after his death he was referred to as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Wolfgang Gottlieb Mozart in letters and documents.
Of course, the phenomenon of multiple (and changing) names is not unique to Mozart, but it’s fun to look at a specific example.
The original painting, sent to Bologna by Leopold Mozart in 1777, is not lost. It was rolled up and hidden during the Napoleonic wars, along with the rest of Padre Martini’s collection, and later re-framed and exhibited where it now hangs, for all to see, in the Bologna Music Museum.
Thank you, Anne-Louise!