I'm curious if
Gia, which is listed here as Italian, is a real Italian name. I've read that it is largely only used by Italian Americans, and not used in Italy. My basic knowledge of Italian tells me it would be pronounced JA, but I've only heard
Gia Carangi's name pronounced JEE-a. Is this correct?
As for it being a diminutive of
Gianna, the Italian wikipedia has a fairly extensive list of diminutives and variants of
Giovanna, but
Gia is not included as one of them.
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanna
I'm curious: is this name really Italian, or is it a diaspora name (like diaspora Greeks using
Gus as a nickname for
Konstantinos) or does it have another origin?