How They Did It - Baby Names in Ancient Rome (Tria Nomina)

The Tria Nomina was a defining feature of Roman society which distinguished citizens from foreigners and each other. It consisted of a praenomen, nomen, and cognomen, which revealed much about a person's social standing. Although not all Romans possessed three names, this convention was particularly prominent amongst the elite who sought to set themselves apart. As a general overview, the praenomen was someone's first name and served much the same purpose as its modern equivalent. The nomen identified the clan to which an individual belonged, while the cognomen specified a particular branch of this wider grouping. A cognomen might also be added as a result of personal characteristics or heroic exploits. The praenomen was an individual's personal name chosen by a child's parents. For senatorial families, this naming process was rather elaborate. When a baby was born, it would be inspected for abnormalities and its chance of survival assessed. If the parents accepted the child, fires would be lit on altars and in nine days, eight for a girl, the family held a formal ceremony of purification known as a lustratio. This was intended to purge the child of pollution or malevolent spirits which may have entered during the birthing process. The next night, a series of rites were performed, sacrifices were carried out, and auspices were observed. During this ceremony, the child would be officially named and registered. The praenomen was generally chosen from a pool of common names. Each male name had an abbreviated form and came with a feminine counterpart. During the early republic, this list of praenomena seems to have included around 30 names, with only about 18 in common use. Some of the older and more influential patrician families made it a habit to choose from a set of particular names. The Julii of the republic used the praenomena Lucius, Gaius, Sextus, Vopiscus, while the Claudii favored Appius, Publius, Tiberius, and Marcus. In the case of siblings, the eldest male child would usually be named after his father, while the younger sons took after an uncle or other male ancestor. In this way, praenomena were recycled over the years and served to emphasize continuity of a family across many generations. The famous Gaius Julius Caesar, for instance, shared that exact name with his father, grandfather, and cousins. When there were multiple sisters, the Romans simply named them in accordance with their birth order, literally. The first daughter would take the feminine form of the nomen, while the following daughters would simply tack on 2, 3, 4, and so on. The famous three sisters of Publius Claudius Pulcher were known as Women within the same family but from different generations might be referred to as minor or major, younger or elder. This tradition was an unfortunate reflection of the unbalanced gender roles in Roman society. The nomen designated the gens to which a Roman citizen belonged. Gens is roughly translated as race, family, or clan, and constitutes an extended group of people who claim descent from a common ancestor. Famous patrician families could trace their ancestry to the early days of the monarchy and drew great pride from their lineage. Julius Caesar even boasted that the Julii were descended from Aeolus, son of the legendary Trojan prince Aeneas and grandson of the goddess Venus. One's nomen was an indicator of social status. The collective accomplishments or misdeeds of generations would contribute to or detract from the auctoritas of the family name. Even if you were rather poor, simply having a famous name could earn you recognition. Additionally, being part of a particular gens might bring with it the anticipation of certain characteristics. The patrician Claudii, for example, were noted for their pride, arrogance, and hot temper. The Roman cognomen was an additional means to distinguish individuals who were otherwise limited to a small list of praenomen and inherited nomen. Cognomena were earned or bestowed by others and thus were not always flattering. For example, Caesar means hairy while Strabo means squinty, Calvus means bold, and Nesca means pointed nose. It's important to note that not all Romans had a cognomen. While patricians were more likely to have one, a fair number of plebeians did as well, such as Marcus Licinius Crassus and Marcus Julius Cicero. These names might drop in and out of use, but during the Republic, some cognomena stuck and came to represent particular branches within a larger clan. Within the Julii clan, for instance, were the Julii Julii, Julii Mentones, Julii Libones, and Julii Caesares. The Claudii clan was particularly large and had even more branches. Great deeds might result in the Senate officially granting a cognomen This would be a great honor and it generally reflected the nature of the individual's accomplishments. For example, Publius Cornelius Scipio gained the additional title of Africanus for his great victory over Carthage during the Second Punic War, while Pompey was hailed as Magnus the Great for his long list of military exploits. The emperors would take this convention to the extreme with many additional titles being earned for great victories occurring during the reign. These included Germanicus for victory in Germania, Britannicus for victory in Britannia, Dasicus for victory in Dacia, Armaniacus for victory in Armenia, and Parthagus for victory over the Parthians, to name just a few. As the Roman population grew, the conventions of the tria nomina were increasingly muddled and decreasingly useful. Civil wars did much to purge the names of certain families, while adoption and intermarriage proved just as effective at wiping out distinctions between groups. Huge swaths of new Romans might all be granted the same nomen, as was the case with the Constitutio Antoniniana, which gave individuals the title Aurelius along with their citizenship. These factors, along with the eventual fall of the Roman Empire, led to the decline of the tria nomina as a means for indicating patrilineal ancestry and paved the way for a more informal naming convention.