Family Names

Nomens

The lex Iulia municpalis stated that the names of Roman citizens should be registered in the following order: nomen, praenomen, name of the father (or the former master in the case of a freedman), tribe, cognomen. This is the order used in imperial inscriptions, except that the praenomen was placed first. Strangers or acquaintances would have used the more formal last or middle name.

In the case of a woman, this name is a feminized form of their father's nomen (not praenomen. So Agrippina's father's nomen was Agrippa... the girl is taking a female version of the family's last name. One naming convention for female praenomen included the designation of birth order among the daughters of a family: Prima (first), Secunda (second), Tertia (third), et cetra. Female names were uniformly applied to all daughters in a family. Ordinal numbers or qualifiers like "maior" or "maior" distinguished between daughters. Also, a affectionate name might be picked up like "pulchra" or "pia" that fit the woman particularly well.

When manumitted by a citizen, the Libertus (freed slave) took the praenomen and the nomen name of the manumissor, and became in a sense a member of the Gens of his patron. To these two names he added some other name as a cognomen, either some name by which he was previously known, or some name assumed on the occasion: this we find the names L. Cornelius Chrysogonus, M. Tullius Tiro of M. Tullius Cicero, P. Terentius Afer, and other like names. If he was manumitted by the state as a Servus publicus, he received the civitas and a praenomen and a nomen, or he took that of the magistratus before whom he was manumitted. The slave also assumed the toga or dress of a Roman citizen, shaved his head and put on a pileus: this last circumstance explains the expression "servos ad pileum vocare" (Liv. xxiv.32), which means to invite the slaves to join in some civil disturbance by promising them liberty.

The nomen (today's surname) was the more important name. It indicated the family or gens (clan) and is sometimes called the nomen gentilicium. For example, Numerius Horatius Domitianus was a member of the Horatian gens. The nomen was abbreviated in inscriptions only rarely, for example, HOR for Horatius, POL for Pollius.

Men often had a cognomen, especially in the late republic and early empire when Roman male citizens commonly had three names (the tria nomina), such as Lucius Septimius Severus.

In practice, men were usually known by their nomen and cognomen, sometimes reversed, or by the nomen alone, although the tria nomina remained the prerogative of the Roman citizen, distinguishing him from the noncitizen and the slave. At home family members addressed a man by his praenomen; by his friends he was addressed by his nomen or somtimes his cognomen; and in formal situations he was addressed by his praenomen and nomen, or by his cognomen as well.

From the mid-2nd century BC, the name of a man also included the tribus (tribe) to which he belonged, probably to indicate his Roman citizenship. The name of the tribe was usually abbreviated in writing, and the word tribus was omitted in writing and inscriptions. In very early Rome there was only three tribes, but by the end of the republic there were 35 voting divisions. Under the early empire every citizen was still assigned a voting tribe, quite often that of the reigning emperor for new citizens.

AEM. Aemilia

ANI. Aniensis

ARN. Arnensis

CAM. Arnensis

CLA. Claudia

CLU. Clustumina

COL. Collina

COR. Cornelia

ESQ. Esquilina

FAB. Fabia

FAL. Falerna

GAL. Galeria

HOR. Horatia

LEM. Lemonia

MAEC. Maecia

MEN. Menenia

OVF. Oufentina

PAL. Palatina

PAP. Papiria

POL. Pollia

POM. Pomptina

PVB. Publilia

PVP. Pupinia

QVIR. Quirina

ROM. Romilia

SAB. Sabatina

SCAP. Scaptia

SER. Sergia

STE. Stellatina

SVC. Suburana

TER. Teretina

TRO. Tromentina

VEL. Velina

VOL. Voltinia

VOT. Voturia