Etymology of the name of Julius Caesar

The name Caesar probably originated from a dialect of Latium which did not share the rhotacism of the Roman dialect.^[1] (That is, the s between vowels did not change to r.) Using the Latin alphabet as it existed in the day of Julius Caesar (100 BC – 44 BC) (i.e., without lower case letters, "J", or "U"), Caesar's name is properly rendered GAIVS IVLIVS CAESAR (the spelling CAIVS is also attested and is interchangeable with the more common GAIVS; however the letter C was used with its antique pronunciation of [g], as it was an adaptation of Greek gamma). It is often seen abbreviated to C. IVLIVS CAESAR. (The letterform Æ is a ligature, which is often encountered in Latin inscriptions, where it was used to save space, and is nothing more than the letters "ae".) The leading vowels in each part of the name are long, and in Classical Latin, the whole name was pronounced [ˈɡaːjus ˈjuːljus ˈkajsar], or, alternatively, with praenomen pronounced trisyllabically as [ˈɡaːius]. In Greek, during Caesar's time, his name was written Καίσαρ, which was pronounced more or less the same. The pronunciation of the first syllable is similar to that of the German word (Kaiser), itself an early loanword.

Roman nomenclature is somewhat different from the modern English form. Gaius, Iulius, and Caesar are Caesar's praenomen, nomen, and cognomen, respectively. In modern usage, his full name might be something like "Gaius Iulius-Caesar", where 'Caesar' denoted him as a member of the 'Caesarian' family branch of the 'Iulian' clan, and 'Gaius' was his personal name. Though contemporary writers sometimes referred to him as "Gaius Caesar" its usage was not the same as in the 21st century. His grand-nephew, Gaius Octavius, duly took the full name "Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus" upon his posthumous adoption in 44 BC, and the name became fused with the imperial dignity; in this sense it is preserved in the German and Bulgarian words Kaiser and Tsar (sometimes spelled Czar), both of which refer to an emperor. Compare the Hungarian, Slavic and Turkish words for "king", forms of kral, all adapted from Karl, the personal name of Charlemagne.

Meaning of "Caesar"

The original meaning of the name is unknown. The four most common derivations of the cognomen "Caesar" are given by the writer of the Historia Augusta (Aelius 2.3):

• from caesaries, 'hair', because the founder of this branch of the family was born with a full head of hair. (Ironic, if true, because Julius Caesar himself was balding in later life.) This is the etymology favored by Festus.
• from caesius, an eye color variously translated today as 'grey', 'blue-grey', and even 'blue'. (Julius Caesar himself had black eyes, Suet. Jul. 45.)
• from caesum, 'cut out', because the first Caesar was cut from his mother's womb (see Caesarean section). This is the etymology favored by Pliny the Elder (VII.ix.47 — Latin, English). (Julius Caesar himself could not have been so delivered, because this dangerous operation was normally done only upon a dead woman, and his mother was known to have lived for many years after his birth.)
• from caesai, a "Moorish" (maybe Punic) word for "elephant" because the first Caesar had killed such a beast in battle. This is the etymology favored by Gaius Julius Caesar himself.

Other derivations

Some modern writers have also added yet other derivations, but none has reached anything near mainstream acceptance.

Footnotes