In his work, Ippolito Nievo uses personal names in a highly original and creative way, paying particular attention to their expressive value and historical, social and ethnic connotations. His work is pervaded by his taste for talking names, often used in a playful and sarcastic way. In this paper Mengaldo offers a large selection of examples taken from Nievo'sworks, tracing a line that goes through the Scapigliatura up to Carlo Emilio Gadda.