Brunetti was known by the nickname Ciceruacchio. Writing in the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, the historian Maria Luisa Trebiliani gives two possible explanations for the name: 1) the Roman statesman and orator Cicero, to whose eloquence Brunetti was compared, or 2) a puerile term of endearment derived from the Italian ciccio ('chubby') and the Romanesco rocchio ('piece').[1]