Residents of an Italian town have won the right to add words like 'fat', 'mad' and 'bean' to their names.

Many people dwelling in Chioggia, near Venice, have used nicknames to distinguish between each other for centuries - as the town's population shares only a handful of surnames - but it is only now that they have legally won the right to use them.

Mayor Romano Tiozzo said the move will: "Avoid a lot of confusion, as well as making filling out forms less complicated."

Chioggia - which has a population of 52,000 - has 8,000 people named Boscolos and 5,000 named Tiozzos, most of whom are distant relatives.

The unusual choices of nickname are from the occupations of the ancient families. Mayor Tiozzo's opponent in the last mayoral election was Lucio Tiozzo 'Fasiolo', which means 'bean'.