[1][2], In the later empire, members of the Roman aristocracy used several different schemes of assuming and inheriting nomina and cognomina, both to signify their rank, and to indicate their family and social connections. We want the same cognomen to be used for both the Roman's cognomen and generating the . Roman Name Generator The ancient Romans spoke Latin, the ancestor of Italian. Several members of the Julio-Claudian dynasty exchanged their original praenomina for cognomina, or received cognomina in place of praenomina at birth. Note that is type of random number generation, called the Roman function. is a pure function, it will return the same value every time it is called with Surviving inscriptions from the fifth century rarely provide a citizen's full nomenclature. If further distinction were needed, she could be identified as a particular citizen's daughter or wife. Citizens did not normally change tribes when they moved from one region to another; but the censors had the power to punish a citizen by expelling him from one of the rural tribes and assigning him to one of the urban tribes. Many nomina end in -ius. a turtles all the way down kind of problem? Pius, "dutiful"; Sapiens, "prudent"), or general preeminence (e.g. Select the quantity dropdown to select how many names you need. will keep giving us the same values. From the beginning of the Roman Republic, all citizens were enumerated in one of the tribes making up the comitia tributa, or "tribal assembly". [1], The binomial name consisting of praenomen and nomen eventually spread throughout Italy. Random.Maybe.maybe : Generator a -> Generator (Maybe a) is a Several tribes were added between 387 and 241 BC, as large swaths of Italy came under Roman control, bringing the total number of tribes to thirty-five; except for a brief experiment at the end of the Social War in 88 BC, this number remained fixed. The nomen is the name of your gens, the cognomen differentiates your family's branch or lineage within the gens. [1], The Roman grammarians came to regard the combination of praenomen, nomen, and cognomen as a defining characteristic of Roman citizenship, known as the tria nomina. roman generator. functional randomness with a different mindset. Adoptive: if you are adopted, you take the cognomen of your adoptive father, but you keep your original cognomen as a second cog-nomen. operations. Liberati, Anna Maria and Bourbon, Fabio (2005), This page was last edited on 11 March 2023, at 15:45. By the end of the seventh century, the people of Italy and western Europe had reverted to single names. Although much of the assembly's authority was usurped by the emperors, membership in a tribe remained an important part of Roman citizenship, so that the name of the tribe came to be incorporated into a citizen's full nomenclature. "Aurelius" quickly became the most common nomen in the east and the second most common (after "Julius") in the west. the patterns discussed earlier to make our generated names more realistic by A cognomen is a family name which would be shared by a group of blood relatives. It plays the role of a modern surname: a Roman citizen inherited his nomen from his father's family. [4], Many individuals added an additional surname, or cognomen, which helped to distinguish between members of larger families. Such honorific cognomina are called agnomina. Many common nomina arose as patronymic surnames; for instance, the nomen Marcius was derived from the praenomen Marcus, and originally signified Marci filius, "son of Marcus". Just Some cognomina were derived from the circumstance of a person's adoption from one family into another, or were derived from foreign names, such as when a freedman received a Roman praenomen and nomen. [23] Between the late Republic and the second century AD, the praenomen gradually became less used and eventually disappeared altogether. For example, when L. Aemilius Paullus was adopted by P. Cornelius Scipio he became P. Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus. The (plural cognomina) personal, individualizing name; given through naming ceremony. Elm language. However, a number of distinguished plebeian gentes, such as the Antonii and the Marii, were never divided into different branches, and in these families cognomina were the exception rather than the rule. The names that developed as part of this system became a defining characteristic of Roman civilization, and although the system itself vanished during the Early Middle Ages, the names themselves exerted a profound influence on the development of European naming practices, and many continue to survive in modern languages. Particularly in the early Republic, the gens functioned as a state within the state, observing its own sacred rites, and establishing private laws, which were binding on its members, although not on the community as a whole. [13][14], Since the primary purpose of adoption was to preserve the name and status of the adopter, an adopted son would usually assume both the praenomen and nomen of his adoptive father, together with any hereditary cognomina, just as an eldest son would have done. By 100 BC a cognomen (family name) was also required on official documents, and when applying for citizenship.Some Romans also had an agnomen ().. A son might be named in honour of one of his maternal relatives, thus bringing a new name into the gens. Some cognomina such as Caesar were hereditary and identified a particular [4], For most of the Republic, the usual manner of distinguishing individuals was through the binomial form of praenomen and nomen. Later inscriptions commemorating the early centuries of the Republic supply these missing surnames, although the authenticity of some of them has been disputed. function provided by the NoRedInk/elm-random-extra package. get a different value each time. Often these were discharged auxiliary soldiers, or the leaders of annexed towns and peoples. [1][4], In imperial times, the praenomen became increasingly confused by the practices of the aristocracy. Working with Random and Generator, Ive learned to approach purely nomina. complex random data. Romans with a cognomen of Nothing should also have an agnomen of This generator randomly combines the three parts of ancient Roman names; the first name (praenomen), their clan name (nomen), and their family name (cognomen) to create completely custom names. Caelus from Etruscan Caele. We could assign a random social status and then conditionally pick random value from a list or returns a default if the list is empty. [3] The basic sense in English is "how one is well known". An eldest son was usually named after his father, and younger sons were named after their father's brothers or other male ancestors. You will find that female names generated here mostly do not contain praenomina. ), For a variety of reasons, women's praenomina became neglected over the course of Roman history, and by the end of the Republic, most women did not have or did not use praenomina. For the names of the thirty-five tribes and their abbreviations, see Roman tribe. Note that while the names of the father and grandfather are genitive (. [16][17][18], The number of tribes varied over time; tradition ascribed the institution of thirty tribes to Servius Tullius, the sixth King of Rome, but ten of these were destroyed at the beginning of the Republic. [1][iii] This demonstrates that, much like later European surnames, the earliest nomina were not necessarily hereditary, but might be adopted and discarded at will, and changed from one generation to the next. In early Rome, this was especially important for the patricians, who enjoyed tremendous status and privilege compared with the plebeians. Faustus "lucky" an archaic praenomen revived by the dictator Sulla for his twin children. Since nickNames now takes care of calling the dependency on whether or not the During the period of the Roman Republic, the praenomen and nomen represented the essential elements of the name; the cognomen first appeared among the Roman aristocracy at the inception of the Republic, but was not widely used among the plebeians, who made up the majority of the Roman people, until the second century BC. process of generating randomness from the process of converting that It extended citizenship to all free inhabitants of the empire, all of whom thus received the name Marcus Aurelius, after the emperor's praenomen and nomen. His ancestors had borne the same name for at least four generations. [26] Ultimately, the ubiquity of "Aurelius" meant that it could not function as a true distinguishing nomen, and became primarily just a badge of citizenship added to any name. In particular, it provides call Random.generate once with a Generator Roman. It was not unique to Rome, but Rome was where the cognomen flourished, as the development of the gens and the gradual decline of the praenomen as a useful means of distinguishing between individuals made the cognomen a useful means of identifying both individuals and whole branches of Rome's leading families. Male roman names consisted of a first name, a family name (nomen gentile), and one or multiple cognomen that could be used to differentiate between different branches within a clan but could also be a nickname or an honorary name. [1][4][13], Apart from the praenomen, the filiation was the oldest element of the Roman name. This means it is possible to get a Roman that has an agnomen but no cognomen. plebians. This number fell gradually, until by the first century AD, about a dozen praenomina remained in widespread use, with a handful of others used by particular families. The full Roman name could also include a filiation (), which was the father and grandfather's names, and a tribal name.. Name structure was: praenomen, nomen, cognomen (formal/personal name, surname, nickname/informal name). Decimus (D.) "tenth". Because of the limited nature of the Latin praenomen, the cognomen developed to distinguish branches of the family from one another, and occasionally, to highlight an individual's achievement, typically in warfare. thoughtbot guides teams to collaborate remote culture. Officially, Roman citizens had three names, the tria nomina.Your praenomina denoted the circumstances of your birth.Lucius, from the Latin lux meaning "light", meant you were born at dawn; Sextus referred to being born during the sixth month and Faustus, from felix meaning "lucky", meant your parents were happy to have you.Your nomina gentile was your family name. randomness into data or operations such as a number or picking an item from a Furthermore, a number of the oldest and most influential patrician families made a habit of choosing unusual names; in particular the Fabii, Aemilii, Furii, Claudii, Cornelii, and Valerii all used praenomina that were uncommon amongst the patricians, or which had fallen out of general use. In addition, Thus far, his name follows the Republican model, becoming that of his adoptive father, followed by his original nomen in the form of an agnomen. One type of cognomen referred to the person's job or occupation (e.g. We can can no longer use the Roman constructor directly in our map3 function adding more variables and dependencies. result. [1], Although originally a personal name, the cognomen frequently became hereditary, especially in large families, or gentes, in which they served to identify distinct branches, known as stirpes. 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. The latest implementation of the roman generator has a bug in it. for pronepos or proneptis, a great-great-grandchild abn. [1] Marcus Terentius Varro wrote that the earliest Italians used simple names. Agnomina are not usually inherited. Initially, only patrician families adopted the nickname. In later periods, most citizens were enrolled in tribes without respect to geography. Hereditary cognomina were used to augment the second name, the nomen gentilicium (the family name, or clan name), in order to identify a particular branch within a family or family within a clan. Maltese kunjom is derived from the Italian version, retaining the same meaning. For characters without a hereditary cognomen we can still I decided to try my hand at randomly generating Roman the time and return Nothing otherwise. [1][2], The nomen gentilicium, or "gentile name",[vii] designated a Roman citizen as a member of a gens. Doubtless some cognomina were used ironically, while others continued in use largely because, whatever their origin, they were useful for distinguishing among individuals and between branches of large families. [1], Adding to the complexity of aristocratic names was the practice of combining the full nomenclature of both one's paternal and maternal ancestors, resulting in some individuals appearing to have two or more complete names. Among nouns, names of animals and plants (Lupus - wolf, Corvus - crow, Cicero - chick pea), objects, especially tools (Scipio - rod, Dolabella - hatchet, Malleolus - hammer) and parts of the body (Ahala - armpit, Barba - beard, Costa - rib) can be found. [xiii][1], The Constitutio Antoniniana promulgated by Caracalla in AD 212 was perhaps the most far-reaching of many imperial decrees enfranchising large numbers of non-citizens living throughout the empire. generate a random cognomen or Nothing. Where once only the most noble patrician houses used multiple surnames, Romans of all backgrounds and social standing might bear several cognomina. (cognomen, agnomen). Perhaps no names were more variable than those of the emperors. Customarily a newly enfranchised citizen would adopt the praenomen and nomen of his patron; that is, the person who had adopted or manumitted him, or otherwise procured his citizenship. In this way, the same praenomina were passed down in a family from one generation to the next. [2], Thus, although the three types of names referred to as the tria nomina existed throughout Roman history, the period during which the majority of citizens possessed exactly three names was relatively brief. The term "cognomen" can also be applied to cultures with a clan structure and naming conventions comparable to those of Ancient Rome; thus, hereditary "cognomina" have been described as in use among the Xhosa (Iziduko), the Yoruba (Oriki), and the Zulu (Isibongo). However, although all three elements of the Roman name existed throughout most of Roman history, the concept of the tria nomina can be misleading, because not all of these names were required or used throughout the whole of Roman history. For example, Publius Cornelius Scipio received the agnomen Africanus after his victory over the Carthaginian general Hannibal at Zama, Africa (Africanus here means "of Africa" in the sense that his fame derives from Africa, rather than being born in Africa, which would have been Afer); and the same procedure occurred in the names of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Numidicus (conqueror of Numidia) and Quintus Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus. The patrician gentes in particular tended to limit the number of praenomina that they used far more than the plebeians, which was a way of reinforcing the exclusiveness of their social status. An example of the filiation of slaves and freedmen would be: Alexander Corneli L. s., "Alexander, slave of Lucius Cornelius", who upon his emancipation would probably become L. Cornelius L. l. Alexander, "Lucius Cornelius Alexander, freedman of Lucius"; it was customary for a freedman to take the praenomen of his former owner, if he did not already have one, and to use his original personal name as a cognomen. [citation needed], As Roman territory expanded beyond Italy, many foreigners obtained Roman citizenship, and adopted Roman names. They were composed of: In a functional language like Elm, all functions must be pure, that is that Sometimes these cognomina were given diminutive forms, such as Agrippina from the masculine Agrippa, or Drusilla from Drusus. because some of the values are combined together in a tuple. Some families strongly preferred (or avoided) a set of praenomina. [citation needed], Another factor was probably that the praenomen was not usually necessary to distinguish between women within the family. [2] However, toward the end of the Republic, as hereditary cognomina came to be regarded as proper names, a woman might be referred to by her cognomen instead, or by a combination of nomen and cognomen; the daughter of Lucius Caecilius Metellus was usually referred to as Caecilia Metella. N. Fabius Q. f. M. n. Furia gnatus Maximus means "Numerius Fabius Maximus, son of Quintus, grandson of Marcus, born of Furia",[xi] while Claudia L. Valeri uxor would be "Claudia, wife of Lucius Valerius". In the later empire, the proliferation of cognomina was such that the full nomenclature of most individuals was not recorded, and in many cases the only names surviving in extant records are cognomina. In the same way, Sextius, Publilius, and Lucilius arose from the praenomina Sextus, Publius, and Lucius. independent. branch of a family (in this case the Julia family). Ive also implemented Other nomina were derived from names that later came to be regarded as cognomina, such as Plancius from Plancus or Flavius from Flavus; or from place-names, such as Norbanus from Norba. Ideally, we would only cognomen. [9] Because some gentes made regular use of only three or four praenomina, new names might appear whenever a family had more than three or four sons. { praenomen = "Marcus" }). the selectWithDefault : a -> List a -> Generator a function that picks a for abnepos or abneptis, and a great-great-great-grandchild adnepos or adneptis. Latin praenomina. This is a list of Roman praenomina. [28] As a result, "New Romans" and, under their influence, "old Romans" too, either dropped the nomen from their name[28] or, in some cases, treated the nomen as a praenomen. The three types of names that have come to be regarded as quintessentially Roman were the praenomen, nomen, and cognomen. The name of the tribe normally follows the filiation and precedes any cognomina, suggesting that its addition preceded formal recognition of the cognomen thus, no later than the second century BC. [21] In part this came about through a tendency for the same praenomen to be given to all males of a family, thereby fossilizing a particular preaenomen/nomen combination and making the praenomen even less distinctive e.g. Lastly, these elements could be followed by additional surnames, or cognomina, which could be either personal or hereditary, or a combination of both. Decius associated with the gens Minatia. Many nomina were derived in the same way, and most praenomina have at least one corresponding nomen, such as Lucilius, Marcius, Publilius, Quinctius, or Servilius. Initially, it was a nickname, but lost that purpose when it became hereditary. Instead it returns a tuple of (value, On the Ides of March, Caesar was assassinated, without legitimate children; but in his will he adopted his nephew, who then became C. Julius C. f. Caesar Octavianus, "Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus, son of Gaius". During the period of the Roman Republic, the praenomen and nomen represented the essential elements of the name; the cognomen first appeared among the Roman aristocracy at the inception of the Republic, but was not widely used among the plebeians, who made up the majority of the Roman people, until the second century BC. We could conditionally For example, M. Porcius Cato had one son by his first wife Licinia, and another son by his second wife Salonia. This would involve multiple random components, both dependent and During the early Roman Republic men had a praenomen and a nomen (clan name). This is a list of some ancient republican cognomina with their meanings. to A.D. 700", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Roman_naming_conventions&oldid=1144056953, Articles with unsourced statements from March 2023, Articles that may contain original research from March 2023, All articles that may contain original research, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles needing additional references from March 2023, All articles needing additional references, All articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases, Articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases from March 2023, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from March 2023, Articles with multiple maintenance issues, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. Duplicative or politically undesirable names might be omitted, while the order of names might be rearranged to emphasize those giving the bearer the greatest prestige. Related Papers. generate a random Roman, generate a random praenomen and nomen and pass them to For instance, Vopiscus was used as both praenomen and cognomen in the Julii Caesares; likewise Nero among the early imperial Claudii, several of whom used the traditional hereditary Claudian cognomen as a praenomen. [19][non-primary source needed] Although the Octavii were an old and distinguished plebeian family, the gens was not divided into stirpes and had no hereditary cognomina; Octavius' father had put down a slave revolt at Thurii and was sometimes given the surname Thurinus (a cognomen ex virtute), but this name was not passed down to the son. . l., "Salvia Pompeia, freedwoman of Gnaeus (Pompeius) and Gaia"; here Gaia is used generically, irrespective of whether Pompeius' wife was actually named Gaia. combine simple generators into more complex generators. [20], Under the "High Empire", the new aristocracy began adopting two or more nomina a practice which has been termed 'binary nomenclature'. [4][10] Other praenomina were used by the Oscan, Umbrian, and Etruscan-speaking peoples of Italy, and many of these also had regular abbreviations. number of random operations can be chained together like this, each using the During Roman times, for example, Latin names consisted of three names: the praenomen, the nomen, and the cognomen. operations are inherently not pure. In contrast to the honorary cognomina adopted by successful generals, most cognomina were based on a physical or personality quirk; for example, Rufus meaning "red-haired" or Scaevola meaning "left-handed". [17], Precisely when it became common to include the name of a citizen's tribus as part of his full nomenclature is uncertain. but it does indicate the antiquity of the period to which the Romans themselves ascribed the adoption of hereditary surnames. Generator b function that allows us to chain two dependent random Magnus, "great"; Maximus, "very great"). These geographical cognomina should be distinguished from honorific cognomina like Germanicus or Britannicus. one. Originally these were simply personal names, which might be derived from a person's physical features, personal qualities, occupation, place of origin, or even an object with which a person was associated. newSeed). We could They were not normally chosen by the persons who bore them, but were earned or bestowed by others, which may account for the wide variety of unflattering names that were used as cognomina. Female names were the feminized form of their nomen gentile while freed slaves kept their slave name as a cognomen . Adding a nomen generator is very similar to our praenomen generator: Our constructor now has two arguments: Roman : String -> String -> Roman. [citation needed] As the names of the emperors themselves changed, so did the names of the members of their families. In the Etruscan culture, where women held a markedly higher social status than at Rome or in other ancient societies, inscriptions referring to women nearly always include praenomina. [12][10], Although women's praenomina were infrequently used in the later Republic, they continued to be used, when needed, into imperial times. Ancient republican cognomina had certain general characteristics. Appius (Ap.) Slaves and freedmen also possessed filiations, although in this case the person referred to is usually the slave's owner, rather than his or her father. Once to generate the cognomen and Its chief purpose had nothing to do with providing homes for children; it was about ensuring the continuity of family lines that might otherwise become extinct. Once we have a seed, we dont want to keep using it multiple times because that [citation needed], A similar pattern was followed by Augustus' heirs. Roman name generator This name generator will generate 10 random ancient Roman names. In present academic context, many prominent ancient Romans are referred to by only their cognomen; for example, Cicero (from cicer "chickpea") serves as a shorthand for Marcus Tullius Cicero, and Caesar for Gaius Julius Caesar. Catalan cognom and Italian cognome, derived from the Latin cognomen, mean "family name". A man who had no sons to inherit his property and preserve his family name would adopt one of the younger sons from another family. [v] Although there was no law restricting the use of specific praenomina,[vi] the choice of the parents was usually governed by custom and family tradition. [27], Secondly, with the nomen becoming an increasingly fossilized formality, non-Italian families, even those who had acquired citizenship and a nomen prior to 212, began to ignore their nomen. A Roman almost always took his father's cognomen, especially if his father himself inherited the name from his father. But many such individuals retained a portion of their original names, usually in the form of cognomina. Marcus Julius Augustus Titus Nero Gaius Flavius Decimus Lucius Aulus Cato Valerius Publius Appius Tiberius Caius Quintus Plautus Vitus Fabius Sextus Maximus Priscus Vitulus Titus Salvius Titus Novius Silvanus Pomponius Varro Calpurnia Portia Fabricia Cornelia Lucretia Valeria Flavia Claudia Octavia Tonia One example of this is Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, whose cognomen Magnus was earned after his military victories under Sulla's dictatorship. Thus, the inscription S. Postumius A. f. P. n. Albus Regillensis means "Spurius Postumius Albus Regillensis, of Aulus the son, of Publius the grandson". A cognomen (Latin: [knomn]; plural cognomina; from co-"together with" and (g)nomen "name") was the third name of a citizen of ancient Rome, under Roman naming conventions.Initially, it was a nickname, but lost that purpose when it became hereditary.Hereditary cognomina were used to augment the second name, the nomen gentilicium (the family name, or clan name), in order to identify a . A Roman name usually, though not always, consists of three parts: 1) praenomen, 2) nomen, and 3) cognomen, i.e. our random Roman names: In an imperative language, I would generate these 6 values individually and then S. Postumius A. f. P. n. Albus Regillensis, N. Fabius Q. f. M. n. Furia gnatus Maximus. Even after the development of the nomen and cognomen, filiation remained a useful means of distinguishing between members of a large family. [2] In written form, the nomen was usually followed by a filiation, indicating the personal name of an individual's father, and sometimes the name of the mother or other antecedents. Oscan and Umbrian forms tend to be found in inscriptions; in Roman literature these names are often Latinized. [1][2], In the final centuries of the Empire, the traditional nomenclature was sometimes replaced by alternate names, known as signa. [25] With the mass enfranchisement of 212, the new citizens adopted the nomen "Aurelius" in recognition of Caracalla's beneficence[24] (the emperor's full name was Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus Augustus, with Aurelius as the nomen). the nomen from a list of historical patrician or plebian names. Some people had cognomina which referred to the place where they came from, whether a city (e.g. Nothing. In the early years of the Republic, some aristocratic Romans had as many as three cognomina, some of which were hereditary, while others were personal. In very rare cases a Roman might use an extra cognomen formed from his mother's nomen. call the cognomen generator once here. Britannicus, "victor over the Britons") or in a particular place (e.g. Nomina from different languages and regions often have distinctive characteristics; Latin nomina tended to end in -ius, -us, -aius, -eius, -eus, or -aeus, while Oscan names frequently ended in -is or -iis; Umbrian names in -as, -anas, -enas, or -inas, and Etruscan names in -arna, -erna, -ena, -enna, -ina, or -inna. used by that family. A person did not give himself an agnomen: it was always given by others. Cognomina were usually adjectives describing physical or personality traits, occupation, place or ethnic of origin. function to generate a random value based on the randomness of the seed. We still havent solved the issue. The abbreviations here include s. for servus or serva and l. for libertus or liberta. Like the cognomen, the agnomen is also an optional value. [11], The cognomen, the third element of the tria nomina, began as an additional personal name. [4] Barely a dozen praenomina remained in general use under the Empire, although aristocratic families sometimes revived older praenomina, or created new ones from cognomina. Gentes Acilia, Cornelia, Lucilia, Naevia, Octavia, Someone who mispronounces words, slurs his speech, stammers, or lisps, From archaic praenomen Caesar, perhaps meaning "hairy", Gentes Claudia, Licinia, Otacilia, Veturia, Probably derived from an archaic praenomen, From rare praenomen Proculus, perhaps meaning "born during father's absence", Wearing purple or with a purplish complexion, Possibly derived from an archaic praenomen, One of the seven stars of the Plough / Big Dipper, Person employed to bury people too poor for a funeral. Cognomina often, but not always, referred to a person's appearance or other characteristics.