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The nomen gentilicium (or simply nomen) was a hereditary name borne by the peoples of Roman Italy and later by the citizens of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire.It was originally the name of one's gens (family or clan) by patrilineal descent.
It was an important social and legal structure in early Roman history. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] The distinguishing characteristic of a gens was the nomen gentilicium , or gentile name .
The nomen gentilicium, or "gentile name", [vii] designated a Roman citizen as a member of a gens. A gens, which may be translated as "clan", constituted an extended Roman group of individuals, all of whom shared the same nomen and claimed descent from a common ancestor.
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.
By the Late Republic, a cognomen, the third of the tria nomina, becomes more important in distinguishing family branches of the main gens.The importance of the cognomen is reflected also in naming practice as it pertains to women, for example Cornelia Sulla, Pompeia Magna, Cornelia Metella.
The nomen gentilicium, or "gentile name", was its distinguishing feature, for a Roman citizen's nomen indicated his membership in a gens. [ 1 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ] The nomen could be derived from any number of things, such as the name of an ancestor, a person's occupation, physical appearance, character, or town of origin.
For most Roman men, articles should be titled using the tria nomina of praenomen, nomen gentilicium, and cognomen, together with whatever additional surnames are usually included in published sources. WP:CONCISE does not require the shortest possible unique collocation of names. Exceptions should include the most famous Romans, who are ...
The chief praenomina of the Porcii were Marcus and Lucius, two of the most common names throughout Roman history.The Porcii Catones favoured Marcus, almost to the exclusion of other praenomina, but occasionally used Lucius and Gaius, another extremely common name, while the Porcii Laecae favoured Publius and Marcus.