R OMAN N AMES By: Arianna Sartzetakis 2011

R OMAN N AMES A foreigner that became a Roman citizen took a new Roman name as a mark of citizenship. Typical Roman names of the late Republic had three parts (the "tria nomina“.) This included the praenomen, nomen, and cognomen and for the women they would inherit there father or husbands full name.

P RAENOMEN A praenomen, the first part of a Roman name, is a personal name which distinguishes an individual from other members of the same family. The praenomen is not normally used on its own: normally only close relatives or very close friends call each other by their praenomen. The first child of a marriage was almost always given the same praenomen as the father; the second child was given a different praenomen, perhaps the same one as an uncle or grandfather, for example. Abbreviation Male Form Female Form C.GaiusGaia L.LuciusLucia M.MarcusMarca P.PubliusPublia Q.QuintusQuinta T.TitusTita Ti.TiberiusTiberia Sex.SextusSexta A.AulusAula D.DecimusDecima Cn.GnaeusGnaea Sp.SpuriusSpuria M'.ManiusMania Ser.ServiusServia Ap.AppiusAppia N.NumeriusNumeria V.VibiusVibia List of Standard Praenomina

N OMEN A nomen indicates which family a Roman belongs to. Below is a list of common nomen:  Cassius  Claudius  Cloelius  Cocceius  Cominius  Cornelius  Coruncanius  Curiatius 8Nova_Roma%29 <-- link to Cornelius’s (from the textbook Ecce Romani)nomen.

C OGNOMEN A cognomen is a family name which would be shared by a group of blood relatives. Cognomina often, but not always, referred to a person's appearance or other characteristics. It was also common to have a cognomen referring to a place of birth, a job, or some other thing which distinguished the person (usually an ancestor) who first bore that cognomen. Under some circumstances Romans were given an additional cognomen, called an agnomen.

C ONNECTING TO TEXTBOOK The father in our story has 3 names. Gaius ( praenomen) Cornelius(nomen) and Calvus (cognomen). Since the Roman society was male oriented the name of a Roman boy included the nomen of his fathers clan and the cognomen of his fathers family. So Corneius’ son was called Marcus Cornelius Calvus. In the formal naming of girls and women the fathers or husbands full name would be added in the genitive case. So Cornelia's would be Cornelia Gaii Cornelii Clavi and Aurelia's name would be Aurelia's Gaii Cornelii Clavi.