Naming conventions for women in ancient Rome

An inscription identifying the tomb of Caecilia Metella, daughter of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Creticus and the wife of Marcus Licinius Crassus; it reads Caeciliae, Q. Cretici. f., Metellae, Crassi, "Caecilia, daughter of Quintus Creticus, of the Metellus family and of the Crassus family"

Naming conventions for women in ancient Rome differed from nomenclature for men, and practice changed dramatically from the Early Republic to the High Empire and then into Late Antiquity. Females were identified officially by the feminine of the family name (nomen gentile, that is, the gens name), which might be further differentiated by the genitive form of the father's cognomen, or for a married woman her husband's. Numerical adjectives might distinguish among sisters, such as Tertia, "the Third" (compare Generational titles in English names). By the late Republic, women also adopted the feminine of their father's cognomen.

A woman kept her own family name after she married, though she might be identified in relation to her husband: the name Clodia Metelli, "Clodia [wife] of Metellus," preserves the birth name Clodia and adds her husband's name to specify which Clodia. Children usually took the father's name. In the Imperial period, however, children might sometimes make their mother's family name part of theirs, or even adopt it instead.[1]

Early to Middle Republic

Women in the early to mid-Republic were usually known by their family name (nomen). A woman from the gens Aemilia would be called Aemilia; from the gens Cornelia, Cornelia; from the gens Sempronia, Sempronia; and so on. If there were many daughters, a cognomen such as Tertia (Third) could indicate birth order, for example, Aemilia Tertia, the wife of Scipio Africanus. (She, however, is better known as Aemilia Paulla.) The comparative adjectives Maior and Minor, meaning "the Elder" and "the Younger" when attached to a name, might distinguish between two sisters; for example, the daughters of Gaius Laelius Sapiens are known as Laelia Maior and Laelia Minor.

Birth order is not the best or only predictor of a woman's perceived importance or prominence; Cornelia Africana most commonly refers to Cornelia Africana Minor, the younger daughter of Scipio Africanus, and not to her elder sister.

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] This tradition casts doubt on the usage of numerical names: the masculine praenomina Quintus ("the Fifth"), Sextus ("the Sixth"), and Decimus ("the Tenth") were widely used without reference to birth order, because they were passed on. Thus the semi-legendary Claudia Quinta should have been the fifth daughter of her patrician father from the gens Claudia, but it is doubtful that four older sisters existed: Quinta is probably an archaic feminine praenomen that later Latin authors treated as a cognomen.[3]

Late Republic

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. Licinia Crassa Maior and Licinia Crassa Minor were daughters of Lucius Licinius Crassus.

High Empire

In the era of Augustus and thereafter, Roman women used more varied first names and sometimes even two first names. Naming practice became less rigid, as is evidenced among women of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. While Augustus's wives were known by their father's gens name (Clodia Pulchra, Scribonia, and Livia) and Tiberius's wives were known by their fathers' less-known gentilical names (Vipsania Agrippina and Julia the Elder), by the third generation in the Imperial family, naming patterns had changed. Julia's daughters by her second husband Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa were Julia the Younger and Agrippina the Elder, not Vipsania Tertia and Vipsania Quarta. Likewise, Agrippina the Elder's daughters were Agrippina the Younger, Drusilla, and Livilla, and not named for their father's adoptive family, the gens Julia. Likewise, in the family of Octavia the Younger and Mark Antony, the naming patterns for their daughters (Antonia Major and Antonia Minor) and Octavia's by her first husband (Claudia Marcella Major and Claudia Marcella Minor) are conventional, but that for their granddaughter Livilla (daughter of Nero Claudius Drusus) is not.

In later generations, two names were adopted by females. This meant that Claudius's daughters were not Claudia Major and Claudia Minor, but Claudia Antonia by his marriage to Aelia Paetina and Claudia Octavia by his marriage to Messalina. Among the elite, names such as Pomponia Graecina became common. In still later generations, women's names bore little or no resemblance to their father's families. For example, in the Flavian dynasty, Titus's daughter was not Flavia. In the Severan dynasty, most women bore the first name of Julia, even if it was not the family's gentilical name, but the second name was different and hence the way they were distinguished. In the Theodosian dynasty, the daughter of Theodosius I was not Theodosia but Galla Placidia, and named partly for her mother.

Some empresses were given the praenomen Julia even if they are unrelated to the gens Julia.[4] Some, like Livia and Agrippina the Younger, were awarded with the agnomen of Augusta ("Majestic"), a parallel of their husbands' (Augustus).

Late antiquity

In Late Antiquity, women were frequently named for their mothers or other female relatives, who in turn were often named for female (or sometimes male) Christian saints. Thus the Empress Galla Placidia's name shows only her mother's name, not her father's. Other examples: Arria was a daughter of Thrasea Paetus and his wife Arria;[5][6] and possibly Considia, daughter of Servilius Nonianus.[7][8]

Empresses bearing pagan names—e.g. Aelia Eudocia, formerly Athenaïs—were renamed to have more Christian names, sometimes for an earlier empress. A few empresses such as Theodora, wife of Justinian, were also allegedly renamed. Late Byzantine empresses bore names derived via Latin from Greek:

Most of these names showed Greek influences, while a few were clearly the names of Christian female saints.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Beryl Rawson, "The Roman Family," in The Family in Ancient Rome: New Perspectives (Cornell University Press, 1986), p. 18.
  2. ↑ Lawrence Keppie, Understanding Roman Inscriptions (Routledge, 1991), p. 19.
  3. ↑ T. P. Wiseman, Clio's Cosmetics (Bristol Phoenix Press, 2003, originally published 1979), p. 95.
  4. ↑ The Dictionary Of Roman Coins
  5. ↑ Tacitus, Ann. 16, 34
  6. ↑ Pliny the Younger, Ep.. 3, 6, 10; 7, 19, 3
  7. ↑ Pliny the Elder, NH 24, 43
  8. ↑ Syme; 1964a:412f
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