In Italian (as other Latin language cultures), there are many paired names, where the ending indicates the gender: Maria/Mario Francesca/Francesco Jacinta/Jacinto Fabrizia/Fabrizio Sandra/Sandro Paula/Paulo etc etc.
Then there are some that are disctinctly masculine or feminine, but don't have a corresponding pair: Marco, Fiorella, Laura, Sara. etc , but these still follow the a-for-feminine and o-for masculine rules.

The names I find particularly confusing are the masculine names that end in 'a' : eg Luca, Andrea and Nicola
Some-one told me that they are different because they come from Greek roots. Can anyone verify this?