Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Roman Name Primer
#1
Because the practices used by the Romans for names can be a touch confusing, I thought perhaps it'd be helpful to mention the basics here:

Trinominis system (three names)

Praenomen Nomen Cognomen, e.g., Gaius Julius Caesar or Marcus Junius Brutus.

Praenomen - generally unimportant for individualization, there were only a handful of them including Gaius, Marcus, Quintus, and Lucius- THIS IS NOT EQUIVALENT TO A PERSON'S GIVEN NAME, so if you choose Gaius as your praenomen, for example, no one should or will address you as Gaius.

Nomen - a family name, more-or-less equivalent to our surname. There were many, many of these and the majority end in 'ius', e.g. Julius, Portius, Claudius.

Cognomen
- THIS ONE is the personal name- the one for personal address and to distinguish members of the same family who could very easily share a Praenomen and Nomen (since they'd all share a Nomen, and with just a few Praenominis, repitition was not uncommon). It was sometimes a physical or personality trait such as Rufus (red- maybe for red hair or rosacea?), Felix (happy, lucky), Varus (bent- perhaps bowlegged), Balbus (stuttering), Caldus (firey, rash) and so on.

Address - the normal ways of address would be either by Praenomen Nomen together or by Cognomen alone, e.g.

Gaius Lucilius Varus would be addressed as

Gaius Lucilius

or just Varus*

* technically, the 'us' changes to an 'e' in this case so the proper form of address would be 'Vare' (remember Caesar's last words in Shakespeare's play are 'et tu Brute?' not 'et tu Brutus?'). It's probably true too of the former case where the praenomen and nomen are used.

Just think about Caesar and Brutus- they're not ever referred-to as Gaius and Marcus, their respective Praenominis, but usually solely by their Cognomena, Caesar and Brutus.

So all those out there who refer to themselves as Gaius, Marcus and Quintus, sorry, but that's completely wrong :wink:

Women's names were rather simpler- they usually had a feminization of their father's nomen- Julia, for example is the female version of Julius, Flavia, of Flavius, Octavia of Octavius- and to distinguish daughters who might all have the same name, simply numbering them was the norm: 'first', 'second', etc. (prima, secunda, tertia, etc.).

There are more detailed explanations of the naming systems out there on various groups' websites (e.g., LEGXX, LEGXXIV, Nova Roma) if you're interested, and many also have nice big lists of nominis and cognominis if you're looking for names.
See FABRICA ROMANORVM Recreations in the Marketplace for custom helmets, armour, swords and more!
Reply


Messages In This Thread
Roman Name Primer - by Matt Lukes - 05-22-2007, 09:25 PM
Re: Roman Name Primer - by Gaius Julius Caesar - 05-23-2007, 12:38 PM
Re: Roman Name Primer - by Jasper Oorthuys - 05-23-2007, 02:04 PM
Re: Roman Name Primer - by Gaius Julius Caesar - 05-24-2007, 10:41 AM
Re: Roman Name Primer - by Jasper Oorthuys - 05-24-2007, 10:46 AM
Re: Roman Name Primer - by Martin - 05-24-2007, 10:57 AM
Re: Roman Name Primer - by Gaius Julius Caesar - 05-24-2007, 11:26 AM
Re: Roman Name Primer - by Matt Lukes - 05-24-2007, 01:29 PM
Re: Roman Name Primer - by Martin - 05-24-2007, 05:42 PM
Re: Roman Name Primer - by Matt Lukes - 05-24-2007, 06:31 PM
Re: Roman Name Primer - by Martin - 05-24-2007, 07:03 PM
Re: Roman Name Primer - by Crispvs - 07-17-2007, 08:11 PM
Re: Roman Name Primer - by L C Cinna - 08-08-2007, 04:18 PM
Re: Roman Name Primer - by Gaius Julius Caesar - 08-08-2007, 08:28 PM
Re: Roman Name Primer - by Caius Marius - 09-20-2007, 10:40 AM
Re: Roman Name Primer - by M. Demetrius - 09-20-2007, 01:41 PM
Re: Roman Name Primer - by L C Cinna - 09-23-2007, 02:48 AM
Re: Roman Name Primer - by Caius Marius - 09-23-2007, 03:00 AM
Re: Roman Name Primer - by Marcus Julius - 11-14-2007, 11:20 AM

Forum Jump: