CHAPTER II
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LATIN PRÆNOMINA.
SECTION I.—_Aulus, Caius, Cnæus, Cæso._
For the sake of convenient classification, it may be best to begin the Latin names with the original prænomina and their derivatives, few in number as they are, and their origin involved in the dark antiquity of the Roman pre-historic times. The chief light thrown upon them is in a work entitled _De Factis Dictisque Memorabilibus_, compiled by one Marcus Valerius Maximus, in the Augustan age, to which is appended a dissertation on Roman prænomina of doubtful authorship; but whether this be by Valerius himself, or by his abridger and imitator, it is the earliest information we possess as to these home appellations of the stern conquerors of the world.
Caius, or Caiius as the elders spelt it, was one of the most common of all Roman prænomina, and was pronounced Gaius, as it is written in St. Paul’s mention of “Gaius mine host.” Men indicated it by the initial C; women who bore it, used the same C reversed (ↄ) on coins or inscriptions. Valerius, or his imitator, deduces it from _gaudium parentum_, the parents' joy, but it is more probably from the root-word _gai_. When a Roman marriage took place with the full ceremonies such as rendered divorce impossible, the names Caius and Caia always stood for those of the married pair in the formulary of prayer uttered over them while they sat on two chairs with the skin of the sheep newly sacrificed spread over their heads; and when the bride was conducted to her husband’s house, spindle and distaff in hand, she was demanded who she was, and replied, “Where thou art Caius, I am Caia;” and having owned herself his feminine, she was carried over his threshold, to prevent the ill omen of touching it with her foot, and set down on a sheepskin within. From this rite all brides were called Caiæ. It is said that it was in honour of Tanaquil, whose Roman name was Caia Cæcilia, and who was supposed to be the model Roman woman, fulfilling the epitome of duties expressed in the pithy saying, _Domum mansit, lanam fecit_ (she staid at home and spun wool), and was therefore worshipped by Roman maids and matrons. The Romans introduced Caius into Britain, and the Sir Kay, seneschal of Arthur’s court, who appears in the romances of the Round Table, was probably taken from a British Caius; but the Highland clan, Mackay, are not sons of Caius, but of Ey.
It was probably from a word of the same source, that the Italian town and promontory of Caieta were so called, though the Romans believed the name to be taken from Caieta, the nurse of Æneas, a dame who only appears among Latin authors. The city has become Gaeta in modern pronunciation, and from it has arisen the present Italian Gaetano. Who first was thus christened does not appear, but the popularity of the name began on the canonization of Gaetano di Thienna, a Vicentine noble and monk, who, in 1524, instituted the Theatine order of monks. He himself had been called after an uncle, a canon of Padua, learned in the law; but I cannot trace Gaetano back any further. It is in right of this saint, however, that it has become a great favourite in Italy. The Portuguese call it Caetano, the Spaniards, Cajetano; the Slavonians (who must have it through Venice), Kajetan or Gajo. It was a family name in Dante’s time, and his contemporary, Pope Boniface VIII., of whom he speaks with some scorn, had been Benedetto Gaëtano.[52]
┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐ │ English. │ Welsh. │ French. │ Italian. │ │Lucy │Lleulu │Lucie │Lucia │ │Luce │ │Luce │Luzia │ │Lucinda │ │ │ │ ├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤ │ Russian. │ Polish. │ Hungarian. │ Spanish. │ │Luzija │Lucya │Lucza │Lucia │ └───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘
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Footnote 52:
Smith; Diefenbach, _Celtica_; Butler; Michaelis.
SECTION II.—_Lucius._
_Lux_ (light) gave the very favourite prænomen Lucius, one born at daylight, or, as some say, with a fair complexion. Many an L at the opening of a Roman inscription attests the frequency of this name, which seems first to have come into Rome with the semi-mythical Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, and was derived from his family by the first Brutus. The feminine Lucia belonged to a virgin martyr of Syracuse, whose name of light being indicated by early painters by a lamp or by an eye, led to the legend that her beautiful eyes had been put out.
The Sicilian saints were, as has been already said, particularly popular, and Santa Lucia is not only the patroness of the Italian fishermen, and the namesake of their daughters, but she was early adopted by the Normans; and even in the time of Edward the Confessor, the daughter of the Earl of Mercia had been thus baptized, unless indeed her husband, Ivo Taillebois, translated something English into Lucia. The house of Blois were importers of saintly names, and Lucie, a sister of Stephen, was among those lost in the White Ship. The name has ever since flourished, both in England and France, but was most popular in the former during the seventeenth century, when many noble ladies were called Lucy, but poetry chose to celebrate them as Lucinda, or by some other fashionable variety of this sweet and simple word.
The lady has here had the precedence, because of her far greater popularity, but the masculine is also interesting to us. The root _luc_ (light) is common to all the Indo-European languages; and ancient Britain is said to have had a king called Lleurwg ap Coel ap Cyllin, or Llewfer Mawr (the Great Light), who was the first to invite teachers of the Gospel to his country. He is Latinized into Lucius, and this word has again furnished the Welsh Lles. Nothing can be more apocryphal than the whole story, but it probably accounts for the use of Lucius amongst Englishmen just after the Reformation, when there was a strong desire among them to prove the conversion of their country to be anterior to the mission of Augustine. Named at this time, Lucius Cary, Viscount Falkland, rendered the sound honourable, though it has not become common. Lucio, or Luzio, is hereditary in Italy. The Irish Lucius is the equivalent of the native Lachtna and Loiseach.
The Lucillian gens of the plebeian order was formed from Lucius, and thence arose Lucilla, borne by several Roman empresses, and by a local saint at Florence; and in later times considered as another diminutive of Lucy.
Lucianus, on the other hand, was a derivative, and having belonged to several saints, continued in use in Italy as Luciano or Luziano, whence Lucien the Buonaparte derived the appellation, so plainly marking him, like his brother, as an Italian Frenchified.
Luciana has continued likewise in Italy, and was anciently Lucienne in France. Perhaps the English Lucy Anne may be an imitation of it.
Lucianus contracted into Lucanus as a cognomen, and thus was named the Spanish poet, Marcus Annæus Lucanus, usually called in English Lucan; but it has a far nearer interest to us. Cognomina in _anus_, contracted into the Greek ας, were frequently bestowed on slaves or freed-men, especially of Greek extraction. These were often highly educated, and were the librarians, secretaries, artists, and physicians of their masters, persons of Jewish birth being especially employed in the last-mentioned capacity. Thus does the third Evangelist, the beloved physician and reputed painter, bear in his name evidence of being a Greek-speaking protégé of a Roman house, Λουκας (Lukas) being the Greek contraction of Lucanus or Lucianus. “His sound hath gone out into all lands,” and each pronounces his name in its own fashion; but he is less popular as a patron than his brethren, though more so in Italy than elsewhere.
┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐ │ │ │ │ Spanish and │ │ English. │ French. │ Italian. │ Portuguese. │ │Luke │Luc │Luca │Lucas │ ├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤ │ German. │ Russian. │ Wallachian. │ Bohemian. │ │Lukas │Luka │Luka │Lukas │ ├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤ │ Slavonic. │ Lusatian. │ Hungarian. │ │ │Lukash │Lukash │Lukacz │ │ │ │Lukaschk │ │ │ └───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘
Lucretius, the name of a noted old gens, is probably from the same source, though some take it from _lucrum_ (gain). “Lucrece, combing the fleece under the midnight lamp,” that fine characteristic Roman tale, furnished Shakespeare with an early poem; and Lucrezia was one of the first classic names revived by the Italians; and though borne by the notorious daughter of the Borgia, has continued fashionable with them and with the French, who make it Lucrèce; while we have now and then a Lucretia, learnt probably from the fanciful designations of the taste of the eighteenth century.[53]
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Footnote 53:
Smith; Butler; Kitto; Jameson.
SECTION III.—_Marcus._
The origin of Marcus, represented by the _M_, so often a Roman initial, is involved in great doubt. It has been deduced from the Greek μαλακὸς (soft or tender), a very uncongenial epithet for one of the race of iron. Others derive it from _mas_ (a male), as implying manly qualities; and others, from Mars, or more correctly, Mavers or Mamers, one of the chief of the old Latin deities. Diefenbach thinks also that it may be connected with the Keltic Marc (a horse), and with the verb to march.
It extended into all the provinces, and was that by which John, sister’s son to Barnabas, was known to the Romans. Tradition identifies him with the Evangelist, who, under St. Peter’s direction, wrote the Gospel especially intended for “strangers of Rome,” and who afterwards founded the Church of Alexandria, and gave it a liturgy. In consequence, Markos has ever since been a favourite Greek name, especially among those connected with the Alexandrian patriarchate. In the days, however, when relic-hunting had become a passion, some adventurous Venetians stole the remains of the Evangelist from the pillar in the Alexandrian church, in which they had been built up, and transferred them to Venice.
Popular imagination does not seem to have supposed the saints to have been one whit displeased at any sacrilegious robberies, for San Marco immediately was constituted the prime patron of the city; and, having been supposed to give his almost visible protection in perils by fire and flood, the Republic itself and its territory were known as his property, and the special emblem of the state was that shape among the Cherubim which had been appropriated as the token suited to his Gospel, namely, the lion with eagle’s wings, the Marzocco, as the populace termed it, and another such Marzocco figures at Florence.
Marco was the name of every fifth man at Venice, and the winged lion being the stamp on the coinage of the great merchant city, which was banker to half the world, a marc became the universal title of the piece of money which, though long disused in England, has left traces of its value in the legal fee of six-and-eightpence.
The chief popularity of the Evangelist’s name is in Italy, especially Lombardy; though the Greek Church, as in duty bound, has many a Markos, and no country has ceased to make use of it. Some, such as Niebuhr for his Roman-born son, and a few classically inclined English, have revived the ancient Marcus; but, in general, the word follows the national pronunciation.
┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐ │ English. │ French. │ Italian. │ Spanish and │ │ │ │ │ Portuguese. │ │Mark │Marc │Marco │Marcos │ │Marcus │ │ │ │ ├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤ │ Esthonian and │ Polish and │ Lusatian. │ Hungarian. │ │ Russian │ Bohemian │ │ │ │Mark │Marek │Markusch │Markus │ └───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘
From Marcus sprang the nomen Martius, or, as it was later written, Marcius, belonging to a very noble gens of Sabine origin, which gave a king to Rome, and afterwards was famous in the high-spirited and gentle-hearted Cnæus Marcius Coriolanus.
The daughters of this gens were called Marcia, and this as Marzia, Marcie, Marcia, has since been used as the feminine of Mark. From Martius again came Martinus, the name of the Roman soldier who divided his cloak with the beggar, and afterwards became Bishop of Tours, and completed the conversion of the Gauls. He might well be one of the favourite saints of France, and St. Martin of Tours rivalled St. Denys in the allegiance of the French, when kings and counts esteemed it an honour to belong to his chapter; and yet Martin occurs less frequently in French history than might have been expected, though it is to be found a good deal among the peasants, and is a surname. Dante speaks of Ser Martino as typical of the male gossips of Florence; and from the great prevalence of the surname of Martin in England, it would seem to have been more often given as a baptismal name. Martin was a notable king of Aragon; but zealous Romanist countries have perhaps disused Martin for the very reason that Germans love it, namely, that it belonged to “Dr. Martinus Luther,” as the learned would call the Augustinian monk, whose preachings opened the eyes of his countrymen.
┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐ │ English. │ French. │ Italian and │ Portuguese. │ │ │ │ Spanish. │ │ │Martyn │Martin │Martino │Martin │ │ │Mertin │ │Martinho │ ├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤ │ German. │ Swiss. │ Dutch. │ Lett. │ │Martin │Märti │Martijn │Martschis │ │Mertil │Martili │Marten │ ————————— │ │ │ │ ————————— │ Hungarian. │ │ │ │ Swedish. │Martoni │ │ │ │Marten │ │ └───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘
Martina was one of the young Roman girls who endured the fiery trial of martyrdom under the Emperor Decius. Her plant is the maidenhair fern, so great an ornament to the Roman fountains; and her name, whether in her honour, or as the feminine of Martin, is occasionally found in Italy, France, and England.
Marcianus was an augmentative of Marcus, whence Marciano or Marcian were formed. Marcellus is the diminutive, and became the cognomen of the great Claudian gens. Marcus Claudius Marcellus was the conqueror of Syracuse, and the last of his direct descendants is that son of Octavia and nephew of Augustus, the prediction of whose untimely death is placed by Virgil in the mouth of his forefather, Anchises, in the Elysian Fields. St. Marcellus was a young Roman soldier who figures among the warrior saints of Venice, and now and then has a French namesake called Marcel.
Marcella was a pious widow, whose name becoming known through her friendship with St. Jerome, took the fancy of the French; and Marcelle has never been uncommon among them, nor Marcella in Ireland.
Marcellianus, another derivative from Marcellus, was the name of an early pope, whence Marcellin is common in France.
From Mars again came Marius, the fierce old warrior of terrible memory; but who, in the form of Mario, is supposed by the Italians to be the masculine of Maria, and used accordingly.[54]
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Footnote 54:
Smith; Diefenbach; Roscoe, _History of Venice_; Grimm; _Transactions of Philological Society_.
SECTION IV.—_Posthumus, &c._
Posthumus is generally explained as meaning a posthumous son, from _post_ (after) and _humus_ (ground); born after his father was underground; but there is reason to think that it is, in fact, Postumus, a superlative adjective, formed from _post_, and merely signifying latest; so that it originally belonged to the son of old age, the last born of the family. It became a frequent prænomen by imitation, and in several Roman families was taken as a cognomen.
The pseudo Valerius Maximus derives Titus from the Sabine Titurius; others make it come from the Greek τίω (to honour), others from _tutus_ (safe), the participle of _tueor_ (to defend). It was one of the most common prænomina from the earliest times, and belonged to both father and son of the two emperors connected with the fall of Jerusalem. Both were Titus Flavius Sabinus Vespasianus, but the elder is known to us by his cognomen, the younger by his prænomen. Titus should have been a more usual Christian name in honour of the first Bishop of Crete, but it has hardly survived, except in an occasional Italian Tito; and here Dr. Titus Oates gave it an unenviable celebrity. Tita is also sometimes used in Italy. The historian, Titus Livius, has been famous enough to have his name much maltreated, we calling him Livy, the French Tite Live.
SECTION V.—_Numeral Names._
Thus far and no farther went Latin invention for at least seven hundred years in the way of individual domestic names. Beyond these ten, the Romans had, with a very few exceptions, peculiar to certain families, nothing but numerals for their sons; some of which became names of note from various circumstances. The words, though not often the names, have descended into almost all our modern tongues.
Primus, the superlative of _præ_ (before), _præ_, _prior_, _primus_, was only used as a slave’s name, or to distinguish some person of an elder race.
_Sequor_ (to follow) gave Secundus; the feminine of which fell sometimes to the share of daughter No. 2, to distinguish her from the elder sister, who was called by the family name. Men only had it as a cognomen, and that only in the later times. It has passed into our own tongue as well as into the more direct progeny of Latin, but Germany holds out against it. Rome likewise used Secundus in the sense of favourable, much as we speak of seconding in parliamentary language. St. Secundinus was a companion of St. Patrick, called by the Irish St. Seachnall. His disciples were christened Maol Seachlain, pupils of St. Secundinus, a name since turned into Malachi. King Malachi with the collar of gold, is truly the shaveling of the lesser follower.
Tertius barely occurs as a Roman name; but Tertia was rather more common than Secunda, and by way of endearment was called Tertulla. From this diminutive arose Tertullus and Tertullianus.
The next number is identical in all the tongues, though a most curious instance of varied pronunciation. The _quadra_, or four equal-sided Quartus, only occurs once in St. Paul’s writings, and so far as we know, nowhere else. Quadratus and Quartinus were late nomina.
Why Quintus should have been so much more prevalent with the Romans than the earlier numerals does not appear, but it was one of the commonest prænomina, and was always indicated by the initial _Q_; while the Greeks called it Κοίντος. Thence came the Quintian, or Quinctian, gens, an Alban family removed by Tullus Hostilius to Rome, so plain and stern in manners that even their women wore no gold, and principally illustrious in the person of Cæso Quinctius Cincinnatus. An obscure family named Quintianus sprung again from this gens, and in time gave its name to one of the missionary martyrs of Gaul, who, in 287, was put to death at Augusta Veromanduorum on the Somme. His corpse being discovered in 641, the great goldsmith bishop of Noyon, St. Eloi, made for it a magnificent shrine, and built over it a church, whence the town took the name of St. Quentin, and Quentin became prevalent in the neighbourhood. It was also popular in Scotland and Ireland, but it is there intended to represent Cu-mhaighe (hound of the plain), pronounced Cooey. From the diminutive of the Quinctian gens came Quintilius, and thence again Quintilianus, the most noted Roman rhetorician. Pontius is thought to be the Samnite or Oscan word for fifth, related to the Greek _pente_, and Keltic _pump_, five. It was an old nomen among those fierce Italians, and belonged to the sage who gave the wise advice against either sparing or injuring by halves, the Romans at the Caudine Forks. Pontius Pilatus should, it would seem, have brought it into universal hatred, but it probably had previously become hereditary in Spain as Ponce, whence sprang the noble family of Ponce de Leon; the French had Pons; and the Italians, Ponzio, and our _Punch_ is by some said to be another form. It may, perhaps, come from _pons_ (a bridge).
Sextus was the prænomen of the hateful son of Tarquinius Superbus, but after him it was disused, although thence arose the Sextian, Sestian, and Sextilian gentes. In later times it came again into use, and a bishop of Rome, martyred under Valerian, was named Sixtus, whence this has grown to be one of the papal adopted names, and is called by the Italians Sisto, whence the Sistine chapel takes its name, and the Dresden Madonna of Raffaelle is called di San Sisto, from the introduction of one of the three sainted popes so termed. The French used to call these saints Xiste.
The Latin _septem_ gave Septimus, a name exceptionally used among them, as it is among us, for a seventh son.
Some unknown Octavus (the eighth) probably founded the Octavian gens, which had only been of note in Rome for 200 years before Caius Octavius Rufus married Julia, the sister of Cæsar, and their son Caius, being adopted as heir of the Julian line, became C. Julius Cæsar Octavianus, though he afterwards merged this unwieldy title in that of Augustus. Octavius gained a certain renown through him, and Ottavio has passed on in Italy, while eighth sons are perhaps most usually named Octavius. The gentle Octavia, his sister, the most loveable of matrons, has made Ottavia an Italian name, and Octavie is one adopted by modern French taste. October is the eighth month in all modern tongues.
Nonnus, from _nonus_, the ninth, is not known as a name till very late, when Latin and Greek names were intermixed. Then it belonged to a poet, at first heathen, afterwards Christian. Nonna was the name to that female slave who wrought the conversion of Georgia to Christianity, and (we believe) has there been continued; and in Rome Nonnius and Nonianus occur in later times as gentile appellations. Nona has been bestowed in England upon that rare personage a ninth daughter. November again bears traces of its having been the ninth month of the Romans, as does December of the tenth.
Decimus was a prænomen in the family of Junius Brutus, inherited mayhap from a tenth son, and it was at Decimus Brutus that Cæsar’s dying reproach, _Et tu Brute_, is thought to have been levelled. Decimus and Decima are now and then to be found among us in unusually large families of one sex. Decius was the name of a great plebeian gens, one of the oldest in Rome, and illustrated by the self-devotion of Decius Mus.[55]
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Footnote 55:
Clark, _Handbook of Comparative Grammar_; Liddell and Scott; Facciolati; Junius; Smith; _Publications of the Irish Society_; Butler.
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