Languages and cultures
Roman Names: Praenomen, Nomen and Cognomen
At a glance
A Roman citizen man of the late Republic usually had three names, the tria nomina: a personal name such as Marcus, a family name such as Tullius, and a cognomen such as Cicero. Only a small set of personal names was in use, so they were normally written as abbreviations. Women were usually known by the feminine form of their father's family name, such as Tullia or Julia.
- The three names
- praenomen (personal), nomen (family or clan), cognomen (extra name, often inherited)
- Personal names in use
- about 17 in the Republic, e.g. Gaius (C.), Gnaeus (Cn.), Lucius (L.), Marcus (M.), Publius (P.), Quintus (Q.)
- Women's names
- the feminine of the father's nomen: Tullius → Tullia, Julius → Julia
- Extra honorary name
- agnomen, e.g. Africanus for Scipio
Roman names and what they tell you
| Name | Meaning or origin | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Marcus Tullius Cicero Latin | Marcus of the Tullius family, with the cognomen Cicero [1] | Recorded |
| Cicero Latin | from cicer, 'chickpea'; why an ancestor got the nickname is only a story [4] | Recorded |
| Tullia Latin | Cicero's daughter, named with the feminine of Tullius [2] | Recorded |
| Julia Latin | Julius Caesar's daughter, named with the feminine of Julius [2] | Recorded |
| Gaius Julius Caesar Latin | C. Julius Caesar: praenomen, nomen, cognomen [1] | Recorded |
| Caesar Latin | origin disputed: ancient writers offered several explanations, and none is certain [2] | Uncertain |
| Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus Latin | the agnomen Africanus marks his victory over Carthage in Africa [2] | Recorded |
| Marcus Tullius Tiro Latin | Cicero's freed slave, with his patron's praenomen and nomen and his own name as cognomen [5] | Recorded |
| Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus Latin | Octavius after his adoption by Caesar; the -ianus form records his birth family [2] | Recorded |
| Publius Ovidius Naso Latin | the poet Ovid; Naso comes from nasus, 'nose' [3] | Recorded |
| Brutus Latin | the word brutus means 'heavy, dull'; how the family came by it is told in legend, not record [2] | Uncertain |
| Gnaeus Mucius Felix Latin style | a real praenomen, nomen and cognomen (felix, 'lucky') put together by our Roman name generator | Built from real parts |
- Recorded Found in historical records.
- Uncertain The origin or meaning is disputed or unproven.
- Built from real parts Made by us from genuine word elements.
Three names for a citizen
By the late Republic, a Roman citizen man normally had three names. The praenomen was his personal name, the nomen (or nomen gentilicium) named his gens, the wider family or clan, and the cognomen was an extra name that often marked one branch of that family.[1][2] In Marcus Tullius Cicero, Marcus is the personal name, Tullius the family and Cicero the branch.
The system grew over centuries. Early Romans managed with a personal name and a family name, cognomina spread among the upper classes later, and under the Empire people often collected more names still, through adoption and inheritance.[1] The three-name pattern is best thought of as typical of the late Republic rather than a fixed rule for all of Roman history.
A short list of first names
Romans used very few personal names. Salway notes that almost all Republican men whose names are known had one of about seventeen praenomina, so the praenomen did little more than tell brothers apart.[1] Because everyone knew them, they were written as standard abbreviations: A. Aulus, C. Gaius, Cn. Gnaeus, D. Decimus, L. Lucius, M. Marcus, M'. Manius, P. Publius, Q. Quintus, Sex. Sextus, T. Titus and Ti. Tiberius among them.[3]
Gaius and Gnaeus are abbreviated with a C because the abbreviations were fixed before Latin had a separate letter G.[3] Some families also favoured particular praenomina and avoided others, which is why the same personal names repeat down generations of one family.
Reading a name on an inscription
Official records and inscriptions often give more than the three names. After the nomen came the filiation, naming the man's father by his praenomen: M. f. for Marci filius, son of Marcus. A citizen's voting tribe could follow, also abbreviated.[3][1] So Cicero's own name, written formally, is M. Tullius M. f. Cicero: Marcus Tullius Cicero, son of Marcus.
That is why so many Roman names reach us as strings of initials. Once you know the short list of praenomina and their abbreviations, most of them can be read straight off the stone.
Women, freed slaves and adopted sons
Women were usually known by the feminine form of their father's nomen. Cicero's daughter was Tullia and Julius Caesar's daughter was Julia.[2] Sisters could share a name exactly, so they were told apart with words such as Maior (elder) and Minor (younger), or with numbers such as Tertia (third).
Freed slaves took the praenomen and nomen of the person who freed them and kept their old name as a cognomen. When Cicero freed his secretary Tiro, Tiro became Marcus Tullius Tiro.[5] A freedman's name therefore shows whose household he came from.
Adopted sons took the full name of their new father and often added a form of their old family name ending in -ianus. Gaius Octavius, adopted in Julius Caesar's will, became Gaius Julius Caesar; historians call him Octavianus, or Octavian, after his birth family, though he did not use that name himself.[2]
Cognomina: nicknames that stuck
Many cognomina began as nicknames for a feature or a habit, and families kept them long after anyone remembered why. Cicero comes from cicer, the chickpea. Plutarch says an ancestor had a cleft on the tip of his nose shaped like one, but that is a later story, not a record.[4] Naso, the cognomen of the poet Ovid, comes from nasus, nose.[3]
Some popular explanations are less secure. Brutus is the Latin word for heavy or dull, and Roman legend says the founder of the Republic pretended to be slow-witted, but the story can't be checked. Caesar is the most famous case: ancient writers offered several explanations, and no one knows which, if any, is right.[2]
An agnomen was a further name earned or added later. Publius Cornelius Scipio was called Africanus for his victory over Carthage in Africa, and the honour passed into the family name.[2]