Roman nomenclature

From Naming Names

Examples of Roman names enscribed on a tablet at Newcastle, England.

Roman nomenclature refers to the naming conventions and customs of the Romans. By the Republican era and throughout the Imperial era of ancient Rome, a name for a male citizen consisted of three parts (tria nomina): praenomen (given name), nomen (name of the gens or clan) and cognomen (name of a family line within the gens). The nomen, and later, cognomen were virtually always hereditary. Women usually did not have the praenomen and agnomen (nickname), which were normally distinct and not necessarily hereditary (although this was sometimes the case).

[edit] History

In the early regal period of Rome, it appears that people were at first referred to by one name (e.g., Romulus, Manius). As Rome grew in area and population, a second, family name came into use. By the earliest days of the Republic, every member of a household had at least two names — praenomen, and the genitive form of the pater familias, which was a fixed and inherited nomen.

This binomial nomenclature was unique among Indo-European languages of that era. Also, the core part of the name was the inherited gens name (nomen), not the given name (praenomen). This is probably why so few different praenomina were used.

Later in the Republic a cognomen was added to distinguish families within a gens, as the importance of the gens grew and the size of voting tribes required this differentiation. Thus patricians (nobility) commonly had three names (tria nomina). Although this system dates to the later 5th century BC, it was slow to take root, as it does not appear in official documents until the late 2nd century BC and was not common until the time of Sulla, right before the formation of the Empire. It was adopted even more slowly by non-patricians; the first examples of cognomina amongst plebeians date to c. 125 BC and it was not popular for another century.

In the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire, old Roman names were gradually replaced by Greek ones.

[edit] Structure

[edit] Praenomen

The praenomen, equivalent to given names nowadays, was chosen by the parents (often named after the father). There was, however, a very limited selection of praenomina, such as Gaius, Gnaeus, Marcus, Quintus, Publius, Tiberius, and Titus. As a result, members from a given family often have identical names for generations. It was therefore necessary to use other names (cognomen and later, agnomen) to distinguish between individuals. Only intimates would use the praenomen as a form of address.

[edit] Nomen

The second name, or nomen gentile (usually simply nomen), rarely gentilicium, is the name of the gens (the family clan), in masculine form for men and feminine form for women. The original gentes were descended from the family groups that settled Rome. These eventually developed into entire clans, which covered specific geographic regions. As the area of Rome expanded the number of tribes also expanded, so that not all tribes were from original settlers. Some were named for Etruscan families, while others were from local tribes or from major geographical features, such as rivers. Well-known nomina include many of the familiar names of ancient Rome, such as Aemilius, Claudius, Cornelius, Domitius, Julius, Pompeius, Antonius and Valerius. The nomen was largely considered to be the main part of the name.

[edit] Cognomen

The third name, or cognomen, began as a nickname or personal name that distinguished individuals with the same names. Often the cognomen was chosen based on some physical or personal trait, sometimes with ironic results: Julius Caesar's cognomen meant hairy although he was balding, and Tacitus' cognomen meant silent, while he was a well-known orator. However, since the Republican era, the cognomen no longer described an attribute, becoming inherited from father to son, and serving instead to distinguish branches within a gens.

[edit] Agnomen

After the cognomen became hereditary and lost its function as a nickname, a second nickname, or agnomen, was appended to the name after birth – usually not immediately so – to signify some personal characteristic or accomplishment. A common agnomen was Pius, for someone who displayed virtues like honesty, reverence to the gods, or devotion to family and state.

Unlike the nomen and cognomen, an agnomen was usually not inherited unless the son also had the same attribute or did the same deeds as his father. However, some victory agnomina such as Augustus ("the Majestic") and Germanicus ("the German (Conqueror)") eventually became handed down through generations as additional cognomina.

[edit] Patronimicus

In earlier Roman names, the praenomen and nomen constituted a Roman's full name and were followed by the patronimicus, or filiation. This usually consisted of a patronymic or series of patronymics, much like the Arabian nasab. The genitive form of a father's praenomen preceded the Latin word filius (abbreviated to f.) meaning "son", whereas a grandfathers abbreviated praenomen preceded the letter n. which stood for nepos "grandson". So, in the example above, the father's name would have been Quintus and the grandfather's name would have been Tiberius.

[edit] Tribes and gentes