#praenomen

[theromaboo]

Watching the Barbie movie felt like studying the men of the Julio-Claudian dynasty.

"Hi, Gaius!"

"Hi, Gaius!"

"Hi, Tiberius!"

"Hi, Gaius!"

"Hi, Tiberius!"

"Hi, Gaius!"

[abgrundsgott]

Roman naming conventions

During Roman Empire, the Romans employed a system of nomenclature, consisting of a combination of personal and family names. It was called Tria Nomina (lit. three names), divided in: praenomen, the name who are normally called with; nomen, which indicated the bloodline of the family or the clan they were from; and cognomen, like surname, which indicated the household such as the modern usage. At times, they would use a third surname, called agnomen, for the ones who were adopted by the new family, but it hadn't a formal use. Between men and women, there were few differences: women usually had father's or husband's praenomen instead of one for theirselves.

[arcticdementor]

An idle thought…

When did the Roman given name (praenomen) Gnaeus die out? Like, who was the last man to be named Gnaeus?

[semperlapsuslinguae]

Praenomen Abbreviations

Have you ever translated a sentence perfectly except for one part; the first name of some dude that just has an abbreviated "M." This list should help:

A - Aulus

App - Appius

C - Gaius

Cn - Gnaeus

D - Decimus

F - Faustus

K - Kaeso

L - Lucius

M - Marcus or Manius

Mam - Mamercus

N - Numerius

P - Publius

Post - Postumus

Q - Quintus

Ser - Servius

Sex - Sextus

Sp - Spurius

T - Titus

Ti - Tiberius

In the 1st c. BCE not many names were in circulation, about 18 with only 12 of the names being common. This is why first names are frequently (basically always) abbreviated in Latin texts, you only have so many to choose from.