GIVEN NAME
A given name (also known as a personal name, first name, forename, or Christian name), is a part of a person’s full nomenclature.
It identifies a specific person, and differentiates that person from other members of a group, such as a family or clan, with whom that person shares a common surname. The term given name refers to the fact that the name is bestowed upon, or given to a child, usually by its parents, at or near the time of birth.
MIDDLE NAME
People’s names in several cultures include one or more additional names placed between the first given name and the surname.
In some English speaking countries such names are specifically referred to as middle name(s); in most European countries they would simply be regarded as second, third, etc. given names. In some countries there is usually only one middle name, and in the United States it is often abbreviated to the middle initial (e.g. James Ronald Bass becomes James R. Bass, which is usually standard for signatures) or omitted entirely in everyday use (e.g. just James Bass).
In the United States, the “middle initial or a religious initial” can be used to replace a middle name even if the name is not printed on a birth certificate. It is sometimes used in place of the middle name on identity documents, passports, driver licenses, social security cards, university diplomas, and other official documents.
SHORT FORM OF A NAME
The short form of a name is usually a portion of that name. It can coincide with the first part, for example, Alex derives from Alexander, Barb derives from Barbara, Deb derives from Deborah, and Mike derives from Michael. In other cases it can coincide with the central or final part of the name, for example, Beth or Lisa derive from Elizabeth, Fred derives from Alfred, Greta derives from Margareta, etc..
In most cases, the short form of the name is obviously shorter than the name. In some countries, and in some cases, the short form of the name is used as first name in its own right, and can be used in baptism ceremonies and indicated on personal documents. An example is Manuela, which is the short form of Emanuela.
DIMINUTIVE / NICKNAME / PETNAME
In linguistics the diminutive form is also called a pet name, and indicates a form of the name that is usually used by friends, family and loved ones. The diminutive is usually part of the name plus a suffix (last part of the name) which varies from country to country, but in other cases it can be different from or just similar to the given name. In contrast to short names, it is unlikely that this form will be used for baptisms and in personal documents.
(Spanish) CARLOS > Carlito, Carlitos
(Portuguese) CARLOS > Carlinhos, Carlito, Carlitos, Cacá, Calu
COMBINED OR BLENDED NAME
A combined or blended name is nothing more than the union of two existing names, for example Annemarie, which is the union of Anne and Marie. Combined names can be joined or divided by a hyphen, for example Karl-Heinz / Jean-Claude, which is the combination of the same names, or completely separate but considered as a single name, as in the Brazilian names, for example, Ana Beatriz / Ana Paula. This form is also used as a given name and can be used for baptisms and in personal documents.
SUFFIX AND PREFIX
In linguistics, a suffix or a prefix is a linguistic component placed at the end or at the beginning of a theme, or root, in order to form a word. It can also be added to an existing word, forming a suffixed word by a process of derivation. Even existing names can have a prefix or suffix placed before or after the name, forming a new, indipendent name. For example, the name LAKEISHA is made up of the prefix LA- and the name KEISHA, and KEANNA is made up of the prefix KE- and the name ANNA.
Here the prefix component is placed before the name. Much the same happens for a suffix placed after the name. For example, the name MARILYN is made up of the name MARY and the suffix -LYN, or SHANIKA is made up of the name SHAN and the suffix -IKA. Names with a prefix are often used by African-Americans (for example, LA- or DE-), while names with a suffix or a prefix are used in countries in the English-speaking world. Often prefixes and suffixes are dictated by fashionable syllables, giving rise to creative names.
Use of these linguistic components is a recent development, so it follows that names with a suffix or aprefix are recently-coined and creative. Most of these names date from the twentieth century.
BYNAME
A byname is a secondary name, especially one given to distinguish a person from others with the same given name, (e.g. Marks the Red).
The concept of a “surname” is a relatively recent historical development, evolving from a medieval naming practice called a “byname”.
It is based on an individual’s occupation or area of residence.
EPHITET
An epithet (Greek: epitheton (ἐπίθετον) epithetos (ἐπίθετος), “attributed, added”) is a byname, or a descriptive term (word or phrase), accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It can be described as a glorified nickname. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, divinities, objects, and binomial nomenclature.
PATRONYMIC
A patronym, or patronymic, is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one’s father, grandfather or an even earlier male ancestor. A component of a name based on the name of one’s mother or a female ancestor is a matronymic. Each is a means of conveying lineage. Patronymics are still in use, including mandatory use, in many places worldwide, although their use has largely been replaced by or transformed into patronymic surnames.
THEOPHORIC NAME
Theophoric personal names, containing the name of a god in whose care the individual is entrusted (or a generic word for god), were also exceedingly common in the ancient Near East and Mesopotamia. Some names of theophoric origin remain common today, such as Theodore (theos, “god”; dore, origin of word compound in Greek: doron, “gift”; hence “God’s gift”; in Greek: Theodoros) or less recognisably as John (from Hebrew Yohannan, meaning “Yahweh is gracious”).
ETHNONYM
An ethnonym (from the Greek: éthnos (ἔθνος), “nation” plus ónoma (ὄνομα), “name”) is the name applied to a given ethnic group.
As an example, the ethnonym for the ethnically dominant group in Germany is the Germans. This ethnonym is an exonym used by the English-speaking world, although the term itself is derived from Latin. In English, ethnonyms are generally formulated through suffixation; by applying an -n to people of Austria, their nationality is known as Austrian. In English, in many cases, the word for the dominant language of a group is identical to their English-language ethnonym; the French speak French, the Germans speak German. This is sometimes erroneously overgeneralized; it may be assumed that people from India speak “Indian”,despite there being no
language which is called by that name.
TOPONYMY
Toponymy is the study of place names (toponyms), their origins, meanings, use and typology. The word “toponymy” is derived from the Greek words tópos (τόπος) (“place”) and ónoma (ὄνομα) (“name”). Toponymy is itself a branch of onomastics, the study of names of all kinds.
GENS
In ancient Rome, a gens, referred to a family, consisting of all those individuals who shared the same nomen and claimed descent from a common ancestor. A branch of a gens was called a stirps (plural stirpes). The gens was an important social structure at Rome and throughout Italy during the period of the Roman Republic. Much of an individual’s social standing depended on the gens to which he belonged. Certain gentes were considered patrician, others plebeian, while some had both patrician and plebeian branches. The importance of membership in a gens declined considerably in imperial times.
Among the most famous Gens: gens Aemilia, gens Claudia, gens Cornelia, gens Curtia, gens Fabia, and the gens Valeria.
PRAENOMEN
The praenomen, equivalent to given names today, was chosen by the parents (often with the pater familias naming male infants after himself). There was, however, a very limited selection of praenomina, such as Gaius, Gnaeus, Marcus, Quintus, Publius, Tiberius, and Titus. As a result, men from a given family often have identical names for generations. It was therefore necessary to use other names (cognomen and later, agnomen) to distinguish between individuals. Only intimates would use the praenomen.
NOMEN
The second name, or nomen gentile (usually simply nomen), rarely gentilicium, is the name of the gens (the family clan), in masculine form for men. The original gentes were descended from the family groups that settled Rome. These eventually developed into entire clans, which covered specific geographic regions. As the area of Rome expanded, the number of tribes also expanded. This meant that not all tribes were from original settlers. Some were named for Etruscan or Sabine families, while others were from local tribes or from major geographical features, such as rivers. Well-known nomina include many of the familiar names of ancient Rome, such as Aemilius, Claudius, Cornelius, Domitius, Julius, Junius, Pompeius, Antonius, Didius and Valerius.
COGNOMEN
The third name, or cognomen, began as a nickname or personal name that distinguished individuals with the same names. Cognomina do not appear in official documents until around 100 BC. Often the cognomen was chosen based on some physical or personality trait, sometimes with ironic results: Julius Caesar’s cognomen, in one interpretation, meant hairy (cf. etymology of the name of Julius Caesar) although he was balding, and Tacitus’ cognomen meant silent, while he was a well-known orator. However, from the Republican era, many cognomina were no longer nicknames, but instead were passed from father to son, serving to distinguish a family within a gens (and frequently requiring an agnomen to distinguish people of the same family if they shared praenomen as well as nomen and cognomen).
Some males had a cognomen that ends in -anus, which was adapted from and commemorated a nomen, sometimes their maternal family or, if they were adopted, their original paternal family. For instance, Vespasian’s nomen (Flavius) came from his father’s nomen. His cognomen (Vespasianus), on the other hand, was derived from his mother’s nomen, Vespasia. Others had cognomina that were derived not from the nomen, but the cognomen of their mothers’ families. For instance, Caracalla’s maternal grandfather was Julius Bassianus, but Caracalla’s cognomen was not Julianus, but rather Bassianus as well.
AGNOMEN
An agnomen (plural: agnomina), in the Roman naming convention, was a nickname, just as the cognomen was initially. However, the cognomina eventually became family names, so agnomina were needed to distinguish between similarly named persons. However, as the agnomen was an additional and optional component in a Roman name, not all Romans had an agnomen (at least not recorded).
Pseudo-Probus uses the hero of the Punic Wars, Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, as an example:
“propria hominum nomina in quattuor species dividuntur, praenomen nomen cognomen agnomen: praenomen, ut puta Publius, nomen Cornelius, cognomen Scipio, agnomen Africanus.
(Men’s personal names are of four types, praenomen, nomen, cognomen and agnomen: praenomen for instance Publius, nomen Cornelius, cognomen Scipio and agnomen Africanus.)”
ROMAN NAMING CONVENTIONS (LATIN)
Roman naming practices varied greatly over the centuries between the founding of Rome to the early Middle Ages. However, the practice of the elite during the period between the mid-Republic and the early Empire has come to be seen as the classical Roman naming convention. This is likely to be because this period provides good evidence of naming practices of the best documented class in the best documented Roman period.
By the end of the Republican era, a name for an aristocratic male citizen comprised three parts (tria nomina): praenomen (given name), nomen (or nomen gentile or simply gentilicium, being the name of the gens or clan) and cognomen (name of a family line within the gens). Sometimes a second or third cognomen, called agnomen, was added. The nomen, and later, cognomen were virtually always hereditary. During the Imperial period, the number and options for elements within a name considerably increased. The naming conventions for the later period grew out of a desire to indicate status, connections and ancestry, in a way that was much more wide ranging than could be shown by the tria nomina.