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Under the Empire, the number of cognomina increased dramatically. Where once only the most noble patrician houses used multiple surnames, Romans of all backgrounds and social standing might bear several cognomina. By the third century, this had become the norm amongst freeborn Roman citizens.
This is a list of Roman nomina. The nomen identified all free Roman citizens as members of individual gentes, originally families sharing a single nomen and claiming descent from a common ancestor. Over centuries, a gens could expand from a single family to a large clan, potentially including hundreds or even thousands of members.
Sons, by comparison, were distinguished by a praenomen, the first or personal name of a Roman male's typical three names (tria nomina). The eldest son was most often given the same praenomen as his father, with others given the name of a grandfather or uncle. [ 2 ]
Even the most famous Romans can be problematic: Caesar usually means Julius Caesar, but this cognomen was later used by all Roman emperors. The problem is not unique to Wikipedia: the Oxford Classical Dictionary has an appendix of alternative names by which some Romans are known, while the Prosopographia Imperii Romani and Pauly-Wissowa use a ...
The gens (plural gentes) was a Roman family, of Italic or Etruscan origins, consisting of all those individuals who shared the same nomen and claimed descent from a common ancestor. It was an important social and legal structure in early Roman history .
However, with the adoption of hereditary surnames, the praenomen lost much of its original importance. The number of praenomina in general use declined steadily throughout Roman history, and as most families used the same praenomina from one generation to the next, the praenomen became less useful for distinguishing between individuals.
Postumus is a Latin praenomen, or personal name, which was most common during the early centuries of the Roman Republic. It gave rise to the patronymic gens Postumia, and later became a common cognomen, or surname. The feminine form is Postuma. The name was not regularly abbreviated, but is sometimes found as Pos. or Post. [1] [2] [3]
In Portugal, a person's full name has a minimum legal length of two names (one given name and one family name from either parent) and a maximum of six names (two first names and four surnames – he or she may have up to four surnames in any order desired picked up from the total of his/her parents and grandparents' surnames). The use of any ...