According to a recent article from wired magazine (in italian)
http://mag.wired.it/rivista/storie/hai-un-idea-geniale-fai-come-mr-arduino-regalala-e-diventa-ricco.htmlThe board was named after a pub in the surroundings of the Interaction Design Institute, Ivrea , Tourin , Italy.
Obviously Arduino is not just a pub's name, it's a proper (not so common) noun!
Arduino is still used as a name and surname, in Italy and probably in most european countries. Infact according to a great italian site for name and surnames (in italian)
http://www.gens.labo.net/it/nomi/genera.html?nome=arduino :
"It comes from the germanic name, Harduwin or Hardwin, made by hardu-, "strong" and wini, "friend", spread by the tribal population of the Franks in the IX
th century, consolidated thanks to the prestige of few saints and the Italian king Arduino d'Ivrea (1002-1015).
The name day can be celebrated the 15
th of august in memory of Saint Arduino from Rimini, died in 1009."
As of today this noun has more spread use as a surname
As you can see from the graph here
http://www.gens.labo.net/it/cognomi/genera.html?cognome=ARDUINO&t=cognomi The name has even more wide spread use when meaning our lovely microcontroller , so let's take this for the first, most important, meaning of the word Arduino !