A Roman man of good family had three names, the tria nomina: Marcus Tullius Cicero, Gaius Julius Caesar. This Roman name generator builds names the same way, from real Roman names, and can tell you what the cognomen meant, because many were surprisingly rude.
How Roman names worked
- Praenomen: the personal name. There were only a handful in common use (Gaius, Lucius, Marcus, Publius, Quintus, Titus and a few more), so they were often abbreviated: C. for Gaius, M. for Marcus.
- Nomen: the family, or clan, name: Julius, Cornelius, Claudius. Everyone in the clan shared it.
- Cognomen: a third name, often a nickname that became hereditary, telling branches of a family apart: Cicero, Caesar, Brutus.
Women usually used the feminine form of the family name: Julius's daughter was Julia, Cornelius's was Cornelia. Sisters could be told apart with Maior (elder) and Minor (younger), or with numbers like Secunda and Tertia.
What the cognomen meant
Many cognomina began as nicknames, and they weren't always kind: Rufus (red-haired), Naso (big-nosed, as in the poet Ovid, Publius Ovidius Naso), Calvus (bald), Crassus (fat), Strabo (squinting), Balbus (stammerer), Brutus (dull). Cicero comes from cicer, chickpea. Others were flattering: Magnus (great), Felix (lucky), Pius (dutiful).
Choose with the cognomen's meaning to see what your Roman's third name says about their family.
Using the names
- Men of good family use all three names; slaves, freedmen and foreigners might have fewer, or take their patron's names when freed.
- Friends used the praenomen or cognomen, so Marcus Tullius Cicero might be Marcus to family and Cicero to everyone else.
- All names here are real: praenomina, nomina and cognomina used by actual Romans, combined at random.
For the Greeks, see the Ancient Greek Name Generator.