He changed the name of Super Crema to Nutella, which combined the English word " nut" with an Italian diminutive associated with other food like mozzarella, portabella and citronella.
Academic purists may balk at what they perceive as a chatty " history-lite" approach, but Ms Burke draws all her conclusions from primary sources (many of which she translated from the Italian herself).
Technically, the name Gianna is already a nickname - the shortened form of Giovanna, which is the Italian form of Johanna, and ultimately traced back to an ancient Hebrew name.