Cabot is known today as Giovanni Caboto in Italian, as Zuan Chabotto in Venetian, and as John Cabot in English. This was the result of a once-ubiquitous European tradition of nativizing names in contemporary documents, something often adhered to by the actual persons themselves. In Venice Cabot signed his names as "Zuan Chabotto", Zuan being a form of John typical to Venice.[4] He continued to use this form in England, at least among Italians. He was referred to by his Italian banker in London as 'Giovanni', in the only known contemporary document to use this version of his first name.[5]
Cabot was born in Italy, the son of Giulio Caboto and his wife; he had a brother Piero.[6] Gaeta (in the Province of Latina) and Castiglione Chiavarese (in the Province of Genoa) have both been proposed as birthplaces.[6][7] The main evidence for Gaeta are records of a Caboto family residing there until the mid-15th century, but ceasing to be traceable after 1443.[8]
Pedro de Ayala, the Spanish envoy and Cabot's contemporary in London, described him in a letter to the Spanish Crown in 1498 as "another Genoese like Columbus".[9] John Cabot's son, Sebastian, said his father originally came from Genoa. In 1476 Cabot was made a citizen of the Republic of Venice, which required a minimum of fifteen years' residency in the city; thus he must have lived in Venice since at least 1461.[10]
