I lived in Italy for 15 years (happily I'm back in the UK) so I can try and interpret the names for you.
I think Arduino derives from Arduo which sort of mean hardy, yea not a terrific name.
I must say i spent a long time trying to wade my way through assembly being told not to use anything else, and Dave you right its bollocks ! I just wasted time thanks to some idiots, I now use mikroe basic and its great on pics, I get most projects up and running quite quickly and if microchip start being unreasonable (like ripping us off with pickit3) i can port to another chip, I'd never try assembler again, free from mind bogglness and easy to move.