NAMES IN ANCIENT ROME

Roman names had much more profound meaning and importance than those in modern societies because they denoted social status and family history as well as personal identity. Names evolved from fairly simple forms to much more complex ones, and finally, in the Later Empire, became simple again (although some people, especially in the upper classes, retained longer names). In the Monarchy and early Republic, freemen and -women generally had two names—their nomen and praenomen. The nomen was the name of one's clan (gens}, which was often a measure of social rank and status.
Nomina ending in the suffix -ius (or variations like -eius or -aius), such as Fabius, Julius, and Cornelius, were ancient clan names reserved for patricians. Less prestigious nomina had endings such as -acus, -enus, and -ca. The praenomen, or first name, identified the individual him- or herself. Principal among the relatively few Roman personal names in general use were Aulus, Appius, Gaius, Gnaeus, Decimus, Lucius, Marcus, Manius, Numerius, Publius, Quintus, Servius, Sextus, Spurius, Titus, Tiberius, and Vibius.
A few Roman men also early used a third name—the cognomen, which became much more common in the late Republic and early Empire. The cognomen consisted of one and occasionally more extra personal names that at first were like nicknames and reflected personal characteristics; familiar examples include Brutus ("idiot"), Naso ("big-nose"), Pictor ("painter"), Scipio ("stick"), and Rufus ("red-head").

Because these names tended to be handed down from father to son. they came to be hereditary family names, usually distinguishing individual branches of a clan. The normal order of this sequence of three names (the tria nomina) was praenomen, nomen, cognomen. Thus, the famous Gaius Juliu s Caesar was Gaius, of the family of Caesar, in the Julii clan; his equally renowned contemporary, Marcus Tullius Cicero, was Marcus, of the Cicero family, in the Tullii clan.
To the frequent frustration of modern historians and students, however, the normal order of these names was often changed for various reasons; official registries of citizens had a different order, for instance, and poets often changed the order to match names to specific rhymes and meters. By late republican times, men with only two names were usually of humble birth. But there were exceptions, a prominent example being Marcus Antonius (Mark Antony), who had no cognomen. In common practice, relatives called a man by his praenomen at home, friends used either his nomen or cognomen, and in more formal situations his praenomen and nomen, or sometimes all three names, were used.
Adding to the complexity and confusion was the frequency of legal adoption in Rome and the name change that went with it. When a man entered another family through adoption, he generally took his adoptive father's three names and added an extra name consisting of his own original nomen modified by the suffix -anus. Thus, when the young man born Gaius Octavius Caepias (who would later become Augustus, the first Roman emperor) was adopted by Gaius Julius Caesar, he became Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus.
Still another added name, an honorary title called the cogndmen ex virtute, was often awarded to great statesmen or victorious generals. In this way, after Lucius Aemilius Paulus was adopted by Publius Cornelius Scipio and then distinguished himself as a military commander in Africa, he became known as Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus "Africanus"!

As for women's names, during the early Republic the custom of giving women two names was discontinued; for several centuries thereafter most young girls went by a feminine form of the father's nomen, so that Gaius Julius Caesar's daughter was called Julia and Marcus Tullius Cicero's daughter was known as Tullia. However, later in the Empire, when women's social status increased, the tria nomina came into general use by many women. And the same often confusing variations in arrangement prevailed for their names as did those of men in the same period.
The names of slaves and freedmen, except in the early days of the Republic, were no simpler. At first, slaves were called por, a slang version of the Latin wordpuer, meaning "boy," and identified with their master's praenomen. Thus, Marcipor was "Marcus's boy," Aulipor was "Aulus's boy," and so forth. Later, however, slaves were given individual names, usually of foreign origin, and also the nomen and praenomen of their masters.
Still more complex were freedmen's names, which often consisted of their original slave name, followed by the nomen of the former master, then by a cognomen assigned at will by the master when freeing the person, and finally by the letter /, which stood for libertus, the Latin word for freedman. In response to Shakespeare's famous question "What's in a name?", during the early Empire Romans of all walks of life, always conscious of and sensitive about family affiliations and the status of their particular rung on the social ladder, would undoubtedly answer "A great deal!"
Toward the end of the western Empire, however, most people came to use just two simple names, usually a personal name followed by a family name (as is common today); or in the case of a man born in a foreign land, a Roman name followed by a foreign one (an example being the military general Flavius Stilicho). The main exception were many members of the upper classes, who tended to retain the tria nomina.

By Don Nardo in the book  "Ancient Rome" The Greenhaven Encyclopedia, Greenhaven Press, San Diego, California, USA,2002, excerpts p.181-182. Adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.