Cognomen
The cognomen (alternative spelling cognomen , Latin for "epithet"; plural cognomina ) was often the third component of the name of the regular Roman naming ( tria nomina ). This three-name system of praenomen, nomen gentile and cognomen, which was developed at the end of the 3rd century BC. BC, was also common in Etruscan naming . To whom the authorship of the three-name system is to be ascribed has not yet been clarified.
Originally, Cognomina were probably epithets or mock names characterizing the individual wearer (e.g. Cicero , derived from cicer "chickpea"; Crassus from crassus "fat"), but later became partly hereditary within a family ( gens ), mostly only the eldest son took over the cognomen of his father. A younger son then had to derive his cognomen from his mother's name or something else.
Since it also served to differentiate between the same name, it can be considered the forerunner of the modern surnames , which only developed in Europe since the 13th century ; in today's Italian and Catalan languages , which, like the other Romance languages, go back to Latin, cognome or cognom means "surname".
Freed slaves usually used their previous (only) name as cognomen, while they took over prae and gentile nouns from their former master.
Well-known Roman Cognomina are for example Scipio , Caesar , Brutus or Cicero . Other cognomina are in the list of Roman cognomina .
A distinction is to be made between the cognom and the agnom , an additional epithet that denotes a conspicuous characteristic of a person or was bestowed after (military) successes (e.g. Africanus , Germanicus ). However, it increasingly took over the function of the cognomen, as this also began to become hereditary.
literature
- August Mau : Cognomen . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume IV, 1, Stuttgart 1900, Col. 225-230.
- Theo Mayer-Maly: Cognomen. In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 1, Stuttgart 1964, Col. 1242.
