By clicking the links below or in the text you can see examples of
praenomen,
nomen,
cognomen,
tribe.
In its most fully developed form the name or nomenclature of a male Roman citizen contained six elements. First came the
praenomen
or forename, such as Aulus, Gaius or Lucius, generally abbreviated to the first letter only, or to two or three letters
in the case of Sex(tus) and Ti(berius). Then came the
nomen gentilicum
this was the 'Clan' or Family name, (equivalent to our surname). Most
nomen
ended in -ius, like Iulius or Valerius, although there were a few rarer forms, ending in -anus or -enus. The third
element was the filiation, that is, the father's name
praenomen
in the genitive case and filius, son, eg L.f, Luci filius, 'son of Lucius'. This was followed by the
tribe
or 'voting district', of which there were 35. This too was generally abbreviated, Cl. or Cla. for Claudia, Fab. for
Fabia, and so on. After the tribe came the third personal name, the
cognomen,
originally a private, unofficial name, or nickname. In the final place came the man's place of origin (origo), or
domicile (dous), for example Celeia. The full title of say Caius Julius Quartus a legionary of the British garrison, would
have been C(aius) Iulius C.(aius)f.(ilius) Cla[udia] Quartus Celeia. While men of humbler status, like Quartus and
the other common soldiers in the legions, for whom possession of Roman citizenship was one of their few assets,
regularly set out their full title, members of the ruling elite did not and were not normally expected to.
For several centuries in the early Roman history the first four elements had sufficed for registration or other
official purposes, and in everyday usage the fisrt two alone,
praenomen and
nomen, were enough. But the
cognomen
were starting to become increasingly more common during the first century BC. There were barely a dozen common
praenomen,
and with the great spread of Roman Citizenship there must have been literally hundreds of men called Marcus Aemilius
or Publius Aelius in many communities. The use of a
cognomen
to disinguish Marcus Valerius Papus from other Marci Valerii was a practical necessity. In the meantime certain
old-established noble families had used
cognomen
for centuries to distinguish themselves from humbler bearers of their
nomen;
only the patrician Julii used the cognomen Caesar. In the mid-first century BC some men, like Caesar, were generally
referred to either by
praenomen and
cognomen, Gaius Caesar, or
nomen and
cognomen, Julius Caesar, but never by
praenomen and
nomen, Gaius Julius. But a number of
Caesar's contemporaries, such as Marcus Antonius, were still content to do without a
cognomen.
The use of a cognomen had still not
become widely universal by the time of the invasion of Britain, as we can see from the first governor who was Aulus
Plautius, nor the later governor in the late 50's Quintus Veranius, as both had only two names, but after the reign
of Claudius onwards the use of three names,
praenomen,
nomen and
cognomen,
was regarded as the norm for a Roman male.
Roman women for centuries had to be content with a single name the
nomen with filiation, eg Julia M.f,
Julia daughter of Marcus. On their marriage they took their husbands name, in the genitive form, Julia Valerii,
Julia wife of Valerius. In some instances in the aristocratic families, daughters were given cognomina but
it is not until during the first century AD that we see it gradually becoming the norm for women to have cognomina.