Oleg and Valentina Svetovid are mystics, specialists in esotericism and occultism, authors of 14 books.

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Roman (Latin) names

Roman men's and female names and their meaning

The meaning of Roman (Roman-Byzantine) names

Roman male names and their meanings

Men's: Augustus (sacred), Anton (Roman family name, in Greek- entering into battle), Valentin (strong man), Valery (strong man), Venedikt (blessed), Vincent (victorious), Victor (winner), Vitaly (vital), Dementius (dedicated to the goddess Damia), Donat (gift), Ignat ( unknown), Innocent (innocent), Hypatius (high consul), Capito (tadpole), Claudius (lame-footed), Clement (lenient), Constantine (constant), Cornilus (horned), Laurus (tree), Laurentius (crowned with a laurel wreath) , Leonid (lion cub), Leonty (lion), Maxim (largest), Mark (sluggish), Martyn (born in March), Modest (modest), Mokey (mockingbird), Pavel (finger), Prov (test), Prokofy ( prosperous), Roman (Roman), Sergei (Roman family name), Sylvester (forest), Felix (lucky), Frol (flourishing), Caesar (royal), Juvenal (youthful), Julius (fidgety, curly), Januarius (gatekeeper ).

Roman female names and their meanings

Women's: Aglaya (brilliance), Agnessa (lamb), Akulina (eagle), Alevtina (strong woman), Alina (step-brother), Albina (white girl), Beatrice (lucky), Valentina (strong, healthy), Victoria (goddess of victory), Virginia ( virgin), Diana (goddess of the hunt), Kaleria (alluring), Capitolina (named after one of the seven hills of Rome), Claudia (lame), Clementine (indulgent), Margarita (pearl), Marina (sea), Natalia (nee), Regina (queen), Renata (renewed), Ruth (red), Silva (forest).

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Today, Roman names are not particularly popular. This is partly due to the fact that most of them are forgotten, and their meaning is completely unclear. If you delve into history, then during the dawn, children and adults were given names throughout their lives, and later they turned into family names. The peculiarity of Roman names still arouses genuine interest among historians.

Name structure

In ancient times, people, just like now, had a name consisting of three parts. Only if we are accustomed to calling a person by last name, first name and patronymic, then the Romans had slightly different characteristics.

The first name in Roman sounded like praenomen. It was similar to our Petyas and Mishas. There were very few such names - only eighteen. They were used only for men and were rarely pronounced; in writing they were often indicated by one or two capital letters. That is, no one wrote them completely. Before today Few meanings of these names have come down. And it’s hard to find Appii, Gnaeus and Quintus among children these days.

In fact, his name was Octavian because he was adopted by the great emperor. But, having come to power, he omitted the first three parts, and soon added the title Augustus to his name (as a benefactor of the state).

Augustus Octavian had three daughters, Julia. Having no boy heirs, he had to adopt grandchildren, who were also called Julius Caesars. But since they were only grandchildren, they retained their names given at birth. Thus, the heirs Tiberius Julius Caesar and Agripa Julius Caesar are known in history. They became famous under the simple names of Tiberius and Agripa, founding their own clans. Thus, there is a tendency towards a decrease in the name and the disappearance of the need for parts nomen and coglomen.

It is very easy to get confused in the abundance of generic names. This is why Roman names are the most difficult to recognize in the world.

The name is fortune telling.

(Roman proverb)

Thorough, striving to put everything and everywhere on a legal basis, the Romans were much more higher value than the Greeks, they gave “surnames” - family names passed on from generation to generation. This was primarily due to the social and political differences that initially existed in Rome between the full-fledged patrician clans and the plebeian clans, which still had to achieve political full rights in the city. Initially, the Roman made do with two names: personal (prenomen) and generic ("nomen gentile"). In the era of the republic and later, they began to call him by three names: a family nickname (cognomen) was added, and sometimes a person received another nickname - an individual one. You don’t need to look far for examples: let us at least remember Marcus Tullius Cicero, Gaius Julius Caesar, Publius Ovid Naso, Quintus Horace Flaccus, Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus the Elder.

There were few personal names in Rome:

The small number of these names made it possible in documents, inscriptions, literary works denote them by generally accepted abbreviations - one or several first letters of the name. The most common names were Marcus, Publius, Lucius, Quintus, Gaius, Gnaeus, Titus; the rest are less common. Some personal names are formed simply from numerals: Quintus (fifth), Sextus (sixth), Decimus (tenth) - which perhaps speaks of the poor imagination of the Romans in this area, especially if we recall the beautiful, varied, eloquent names of the Greeks.

Gaius Julius Caesar. Marcus Tullius Cicero

There were significantly more family names: Claudius, Julius, Licinius, Tullius, Valery, Emilius and many others. Each clan included several large families: for example, the families of the Scipios, Rufini, Lentuli, and Cetegi belonged to the Cornelian clan, and the “nomen gentile” Aemilius was worn by members of the families of Paul and Lepidus.

Some personal names were the exclusive property of certain families: for example, the name Appius is found only in the Claudian family, and the praenomen Mamercus was monopolized by representatives of the Aemilian family. If someone stained his family with some shameful act, then his name was no longer used in this family. Thus, in the Claudian family we will not find the name Lucius, but in the Manlian family from 383 BC. e. There was a ban on the name Mark, after the patrician Marcus Manlius, the winner of the Aequi in 392 BC. e. and the defender of the Capitol during the Gaulish invasion of Rome, decisively spoke out for the rights of the plebeians, thereby provoking the furious hatred of the Roman patricians, including his own relatives. He was recognized as a "traitor of his kind" ( Livy. From the foundation of the city, VI, 20), and from now on members of the Manlian family were forbidden to name their children by his name.

When the genus grew and within it stood out separate families, there was a need for cognomen. The first family nicknames arose among the patricians and were associated with the main occupations of the Romans at that time - agriculture and cattle breeding. The nickname Pilumnus goes back to the word “pilum” - pestle; Pizon - from the verb “piso” or “pinzo” - to pound, to grind. From names cultivated plants originate from the family nicknames of Cicero ("Citser" - peas), Lentulov ("lens" - lentils). In the Yuniev family there is a nickname Bubulk - a boot-herder, since the first representatives of this genus were known for breeding oxen. Other cognomen reflect some characteristic feature person: Cato - dexterous, cunning; Brutus - inert, dull; Cincinnatus is curly.

Already in the era of the republic, some prominent citizens had, as mentioned above, not three, but four names. The fourth was an additional nickname (agnomen), which was assigned for outstanding feats or for the exemplary and memorable performance of certain things by people. job responsibilities. Publius Cornelius Scipio, winner of Hannibal at the Battle of Zama in 202 BC. e., received the honorary nickname African. Marcus Porcius Cato, famous for his activities as a censor, remained in history as Cato the Censor. Such nicknames could even be inherited by the hero’s eldest son, but over time this custom was abandoned.

Initially, when a young Roman was included in the list of citizens or other official documents, only his personal name and the full three-part name of his father were recorded in genitive case. Subsequently, the practice changed to include all three names of the new citizen along with the name of his father. In the inscriptions one can also find indications of the name of a grandfather or even a great-grandfather: “son of Marcus”, “grandson of Publius”, etc. Caesar, wanting to bring more order to the administrative affairs of the state, decided in his municipal law 49 BC e., so that in the acts not only all three names of the citizen are given, but also the name of his father, and in addition, it is noted which city tribe the person belongs to. (Rome has long been divided into 35 tribes.) Consequently, in official documents the citizen was named as follows: “Marcus Tullius, son of Marcus, grandson of Marcus, great-grandson of Marcus, from the tribe Cornelia, Cicero” or “Marcus Metilius, son of Gaius, from the Pomptine tribe, Marcellinus."

Daughters were called the father's family name in the feminine form: the daughter of the same Mark Tullius Cicero was called Tullia, the daughter of Terence - Terence, etc. Sometimes a prenomen was added, which came mainly from the numerals: Tertia (third), Quintilla (fifth). Married woman retained her name - “nomen gentile”, but her husband’s family nickname in the genitive case was added to it. In official documents it looked like this: “Terence, daughter of Terence (wife) of Cicero” or “Livia Augusta”, i.e. the wife of Augustus. During the imperial era, women often had double names, for example: Aemilia Lepida.

A Roman could become a member of another clan through adoption (“adoptio”), in which case he took the full threefold name of the adoptive parent, and retained his own clan name as a second cognomen with the addition of a suffix - an(us). So, Paul Emilius, after he was adopted by Publius Cornelius Scipio, began to be called: Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilian, and Titus Pomponius Atticus, a friend of Cicero, adopted by his uncle Quintus Caecilius, kept his family nickname, turning into Quintus Caecilius Pomponianus Atticus . Sometimes not only the family nickname, but also the family name of the adopted person was preserved unchanged as cognomen: when Gaius Plinius Secundus adopted his nephew Publius Caecilius Secundus, he began to be called Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus. It also happened that the son received a nickname from the mother’s family name; this was intended to emphasize the close union of the two families: for example, Servius Cornelius Dolabella Petronius bore the family name and cognomen of his father, Cornelius Dolabella, but he inherited the second nickname from his mother, whose name was Petronia. So, we see that there was no strictly defined order in the Roman anthroponymic nomenclature and, say, the origin of the second family nickname was in different cases very different.

Christianity, trying to break away from the pagan tradition of names, decisively introduced unusual, artificially created and sometimes quite bizarre designs into the nomenclature, going back to Christian ritual formulas and prayers. It is enough to give a few examples: Adeodata - “given by God”, Deogracias - “thanksgiving to God” and even Quodvultdeus - “what God wants.”

As in Greece, in Rome slaves could keep the names given to them at birth. More often, however, in houses and estates, slaves were distinguished by their origin, and then the ethnikon replaced the personal name: Sir, Gall, etc. Slaves were also called “puer” - boy, combining this designation with the name of the master in the genitive case. Thus, the slave of Mark (Marzi puer) became Marzipor, and the slave of Publius (Publii puer) became Publipor.

A slave, set free, a freedman, took the generic and sometimes personal name of his master, who granted him freedom, but retained his own name as a cognomen. Andronicus, a Greek from Tarentum, one of the founders of Roman literature (III century BC), received freedom from Livius Salinator, and with it the traditional Roman three-term name: Lucius Livius Andronicus. Tyrone, an educated slave and secretary of Cicero, having gained freedom, began to be called Marcus Tullius Tyrone. It also happened differently. A Roman who freed his slave could grant him not his own family name, but the “nomen gentile” of another person with whom he maintained friendly and family ties. One of Cicero’s slaves, Dionysius, having become a freedman, received the name Marcus Pomponius Dionysius: Cicero gave him his personal name, and borrowed the family name from his friend Atticus, who highly valued the educated Dionysius.

A slave who was freed by a woman took the personal and family name of her father, and in addition, official acts indicated to whom he owed his freedom: for example, Marcus Livius, Augusta’s freedman, Ismar.

Let us add, finally, that many foreigners sought to pass themselves off as Roman citizens at any cost and, perhaps, that is why they willingly accepted Roman names, especially family names. Only Emperor Claudius strictly forbade people of foreign origin from appropriating Roman family names, and for attempting to fraudulently pass oneself off as a Roman citizen, the offender was liable to death penalty (Suetonius. Divine Claudius, 25).

And how many hours are devoted to history now? ancient world? Probably a tiny amount. So the ancient Romans remain in the memory of descendants in the form of eyeless statues and drum roll names Marcus Tullius Cicero! Gaius Julius Caesar! Titus Flavius ​​Vespasian!

By the way, it’s worth talking about Roman names in particular, because they were built according to a rather intricate but logical principle.

Unlike, which actually only had a personal name, the ancient Romans attached great importance to the family from which a person came. Therefore, in the name of a decent Roman, in addition to personal name (praenomen) was definitely included family name (nomen). In the end, the tradition of naming a person by personal name and surname became pan-European from Rome. In addition, the Roman name often had a third part, cognomen. It was an individual nickname or the name of a branch of the family.

The number of names currently used in any of European countries, number in the hundreds. Some of them are popular, and some are less common. Americans generally form new names by abbreviating or truncating names, so to speak, canonical ones. Bob turns out to be Robert, and Dick turns out to be Richard. You won’t even realize it right away!

The ancient Romans most often used 12 personal names. Among them are Gaius, Marcus, Publius, Tiberius, Titus. Personal names were so ancient that no one knew their meaning. Just words... In inscriptions, personal names were usually abbreviated. Since there were few names, anyone could guess what the abbreviation meant.

Remember how the hero of Gogol’s “The Overcoat” turned out to be a failure already at baptism? All sorts of awkward names fell out of the calendar for him, so he had to accept his father’s name, which was also not very euphonious to the Russian ear. So he became Akaki Akakievich. In Rome, giving the father's personal name to the eldest son was a long-standing tradition. The grandfather and father of Marcus Tullius Cicero, the eldest in the family, were also Marcus Tullius.

The number of personal names, already small, was further limited in some families. The personal name of a person who committed a crime became forbidden in his family, and no more boys were called by this name.

The family name in Latin was simply called a name (nomen). This shows that for the Romans, the genus, the family, were more important than the person himself who belonged to this family. The Roman family was much more family modern and built differently. In addition to parents and children, this family could include distant relatives and even slaves or freedmen. Adoption rules were very liberal, and blood relationship was not considered a decisive factor.

Thus, Gaius Julius Caesar adopted his grandnephew Gaius Octavius ​​Furinus, who, after the murder of Caesar, became his heir, and subsequently the first Roman emperor under the name Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian. Both Caesar and his heir had the same personal name. Both were named Guy. But one of them belonged to the Julius family, and the second to the Octavian family.

By the way, Spartak, a slave, Thracian by origin, is known to descendants only by his own name. None family name Naturally, he didn’t have one.

Thus, the ancient Roman family, the surname, was a fairly large association, headed by the father of the family, the patron. He played the role of commander of this small army and had unlimited rights in the family. In principle, the Roman Senate could even forgive him the murder of one of his family members. Parricide was considered the most serious crime, and there was no justification for it.

Let's move on to the third component of Roman surnames. As already mentioned, both the grandfather and father of the famous Roman orator were also Marcus Tullius. But only he had the nickname “Cicero” (“cicero”). “Cicer” was the Latin name for chickpeas, a legume that today we call “Turkish nuts.” From this plant in the Middle East they make delicious and no less tasty dish falafel. Marcus Tullius Sr. received this nickname because of the shape of his nose, wide and flattened. The outstanding Roman poet Publius Ovid Naso also had a nickname associated with his nose. "Naso" means "nosed" in Latin.

Perhaps the most famous in our time ancient Roman The cognomen nickname was "Caesar", which meant "hairy" (from the Latin word "caesaries" - "hair"). His heir, Octavian, adopted not only the name “Julius” as his family name, but also the nickname “Caesar”. He is known to be the founder of the Roman Empire. Following him, many emperors added the name “Caesar” to their names. Thus, this word became a symbol of a powerful and absolute ruler. From it subsequently formed Russian word"tsar".

Sometimes a Roman could have several nicknames. Yes, commander Publius Cornelius Scipio (235 BC - 183 BC) for the victory over Hannibal he received an additional cognomen and became known as Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus. His first nickname, “scipio,” meant “rod.” He belonged to the Cornelian family, and his personal name was Publius. By the way, his descendants, Cornelia Scipio, gave men only three personal names: Gnaeus, Lucius and Publius.

One of Caesar's assassins was Marcus Junius Brutus Caepio (85 BC - 42 BC). His nickname "Brutus" means "rude". The word “brutal” also comes from this Latin word in Russian. Brutus' second nickname came after he was adopted by his mother's brother, Quintus Servilius Caepio. After his adoption, Brutus also became Caepio.

Daughters in Roman families were not given a name; they bore the feminine form of the family name: Julia, Valeria, Cornelia, Flavia. If there were several daughters, they were called “eldest” (Major) and “younger” (Minor), or given a “serial number”: “second” (Secunda), “third” (Tertia) and so on. When a woman got married, she additionally received her husband's family name. So, Julius Caesar’s wife’s name was Cornelia Julia (daughter Cornelia, wife Julia)

Slaves, as already mentioned, were also members of a large Roman family-surname. Therefore, the owner's family name was added to their name. Since it was not customary for slaves to be given Roman personal names, their names were more varied than the names of free Romans. Often a barbarian slave was given Greek name and they also added his profession to the name (cook, librarian, doctor).

A slave who received freedom, that is, a freedman, received his personal and family name former owner and often remained under his patronage (in Latin this was called “client”). Thus, the famous Jewish writer and historian Josephus Flavius ​​(37−100) at birth he was named Yosef ben Matityahu (that is, Joseph Matveevich). During the Jewish War, he was captured by the commander Titus Flavius ​​Vespasian, to whom he predicted an imperial future. When Vespasian became emperor, he granted Joseph his freedom. At the same time, Joseph began to be called family name his former master - Flavius.

Recently, Roman names have become increasingly popular. The fact is that parents are trying to choose the most unusual and original name for your child.

Some names that came from the Roman Empire are so ancient that even the most experienced and professional historians cannot decipher them.

Male ancient Roman names

Few people know that originally masculine roman name consisted of three parts: personal, generic and individual. There were few variants of personal names: less than a hundred in total and about twenty frequently used. The second part of the name was associated with surnames in modern world. The third could sound like a nickname of a person or, if there was no such thing, as the name of a family branch.

Prenomen, or personal part

Roman names are so ancient origin that in the modern world they have practically fallen out of use and have lost their value. The letters used abbreviated names, usually the first three letters:

• Appius, Lucius, Manius, Numerius, Pablius, Servius, Spurius, Tiberius;
• Aulus, Gaius, Marcus Quintus, Titus;
• Decimus, Caezon, Mamercus, Sextus.

An interesting fact is that only the first four sons were given personal names. For the younger ones, the names were numbers from five onwards. The name Sextus (which meant sixth) is a shining example. Over time, the number of children born in the family decreased, but the names remained. So, the second boy could be called Octavius, which would correspond to the number eight. But this is many, many years later.

Nomen, or generic part

The title corresponding to the surname was written in the form of an adjective in masculine and was not subject to reduction. The names differed in their unique endings. In total there were about a thousand unspoken surnames:

• Tullius, Julius, Ulius, Antonius, Claudius, Flavius, Pompeius, Valerius, Ulpius, Varenus, Alphenus;
• Aquillia, Aternia, Atilia, Verginia, Baloyanni, Veturia, Horace, Genutia, Cassia, Curtia, Marcia, Minucia, Navtia, Rumilia, Servilia, Sergius, Fabia;
• Mafenas, Asprenas, Fulginas;
• Mastarna, Perperna, Sisenna, Tapsenna, Spurinna.

The meaning of some nomen is so ancient that their meaning has already been lost. But to this day, some surnames have survived, the meaning of which seems possible to explain. For example, Azinus is a donkey, Kulius is a blind man, Caninus is a dog, Fabius is a bean, Ovidius is a sheep, Porkius is a pig.

It is noteworthy that closer to our era, holders of the ranks of supreme power began to take for themselves “divine” surnames, translated into Russian as Venus, Jupiter, Aeneas. Thus, the rulers tried to justify their right to the throne and count themselves among the relatives of the celestial inhabitants of Olympus.

Cognomen, or individual nickname

The custom of including a nickname in the full title of a name appeared later than the tradition of taking notes on the first two parts was born. Therefore, the translations and meanings of the cognomen are more or less clear to the modern reader: Agricola (preacher), Crassus (fat), Lautus (fat), Lentulus (lentil), Macer (thin), Celsus (tall), Paullus (short), Rufus (red-haired ), Strabo (cross-eyed), Nasika (sharp-nosed), Severus (cruel), Probus (honest), Lucro (glutton), Taurus (bull).

Sometimes the Romans resorted to naming an additional fourth component of the name - agnomen. This happened because often several family members had the same names, and in order to more clearly understand who they were talking about, additional symbols were used. More often this was required by representatives of ancient and noble families, numbering a large number of branches.

Female names of Ancient Rome

During the reign of emperors, Roman women did not have the right to assign personal names. They were addressed by the title of the tribal tribe, used in the feminine gender. Julia, that is, the daughter of that same Julia; Claudia, which means her father is Claudius; Cornelia, respectively, descended from the Cornelian family.

Girls were distinguished by their prenomen. If the whole family has two sisters, then the eldest received the middle name Major, and the youngest - Minor. IN large families quantitative prenomen were used: Second (second), Tertia (third), Quinta (fifth) and so on. The last daughter retained the title of Minor.

A married woman remained with her own name, but her husband's cognomen was added to it. And noble ladies from imperial dynasties and daughters of generals had the exclusive right to wear their father’s cognomen.

Special slave names

Is it worth telling that in ancient times slaves were not considered people, had no rights and were considered equal to the property of the owner. Since a prudent person would not come up with names for a sofa, a table, or a dress, the slaves did not need names. They were addressed by the slave owner's name with the suffix "pur", which means "boy" in Roman. For example, Lutsipur, Matsipur, Publipur, Quintipur.

Over time, the development of slave ownership began to gain momentum, and the number of involuntary slaves grew inexorably. I had to agree that naming people deprived of their freedom has become a necessary measure. Oddly enough, the rulers abandoned offensive nicknames for their subordinates. Slaves were given beautiful names stones, plants, names of mythical heroes (Sardonicus, Adamant, Hector). Sometimes the owners referred to the professional skills of the unfortunate person or his place of birth. Corinthus (Corphinian), Dacus (Dacian), Pictor (painter). Often, instead of names, simply numerals were used.