What does “intestare” mean in Italian?

When someone writes you a cheque, the practical question in Italian is a chi lo intesto? — “who do I make it out to?” Intestare is the everyday verb for putting a name on a cheque, a bank account, a car, or a deed. English splits this across “make out to,” “register in the name of,” and “put in someone’s name”; Italian uses one word for all of them.

It comes from in- + testa (“head”): you write the name at the head of the document, so the thing is formally attributed to that person. The same root gives intestazione (the heading or account-holder line) and carta intestata (“letterhead”). You’ll meet it constantly in bureaucratic life: intestare un conto corrente (open an account in someone’s name), l’auto è intestata a mio padre (“the car is registered to my father”), un assegno intestato a Mary. In the clip the cashier accepts the cheque and immediately asks a chi lo intesto? — “A Mary” — the exact moment the verb does its work.