CHAPTER IV
.
COGNOMINA.
SECTION I.
Roman cognomina were originally neither more nor less than nick-names, sometimes far from complimentary, but for the sake of convenience, or of honourable association, continued in the family.
Sometimes they were adjectives, such as Asper (the rough), Cæcus (the blind), Brutus (the stupid). Sometimes they were suggested by the appearance, such as Naso (the nose), or Scævola (the left-handed), the soubriquet earned by that Mutius who seared his right hand in the fire to prove to Porsenna what Roman constancy was. Sura (the calf of the leg), Sulla (the red-pimpled), Barbatus (the bearded), Dentatus (the toothed), Balbus (the stammerer), and even Bibulus and Bibacula (the drunkard).
Sometimes, like some of the gentle nomina previously mentioned, they came from animal or vegetable, connected in some way with the ancestor, either by augury, chase, or culture, such as Corvinus, from _corvus_ (a raven), Buteo (a buzzard), Lentulus (a bean), Piso, from _pisum_ (a pea), Cicero (a vetch), Cæpio, from _cæpe_ (an onion). Others were from the birthplace of the forefather, such as Hadrianus, Albinus; others were the ablative case of the name of the tribe to which the gens belonged, as Romilia, or Palatina. Sometimes a _cognomen secundus_, or agnomen, was superadded in the case of distinguished personages, in memory of their services, such as Coriolanus, Capitolinus, Africanus, Asiaticus. The latest example of an agnomen of victory was Peloponnesiacus, which was conferred in 1688 by the Venetian Republic upon Francesco Morosini, the conqueror of the Morea.
Whatever the cognomen,—fortuitous, derisive, or honourable,—it remained attached for ever to the family, and served to designate that section of the gens, but did not naturally descend to females; though in the latter and more irregular periods, when the gentes were so extensive that the feminine was no distinction, they were usually assumed by the daughters of the house, and altered to suit their construction.
_Ater_, black, was the source of the name of Adria in Picenum, whence was called Adriatic Sea. A family of Ælii, migrating through Spain, were known by the cognomen of Adrianus, or Hadrianus, both place and name being usually spelt with the aspirate. The Emperor Publius Ælius Hadrianus built our famous northern wall, still called after him, as is the city of Adrianople; but he failed in imposing his gentile name of Ælia upon Jerusalem. The Italian surname of Adriani is probably derived from the original city. An Adrianus was the first abbot of St. Augustin’s, Canterbury, and another was first bishop of Aberdeen; but the most popular St. Adrianus was an officer in the imperial army who was converted by the sight of the martyrdoms under Galerius, and was martyred himself at Nicomedia, whence his relics were taken to Constantinople and to Rome, and thence again to Flanders, where they were transported from one abbey to another, and supposed to work such miracles that Adrianus has ever since been a universal name in the Low Countries, where it gets contracted into Arje, or Janus, while the more northerly nations call it, in common use, Arrian, or Arne. The French make it Adrien, and have given it the feminine Adrienne; and the Italians have not unfrequently Adriano and Adriana. In Russia it is Andreïän.
Aquila (an eagle) was a cognomen in several Roman families, either from augury or from the national feature. It reminds us of the Greek _Aias_, and of many of the Teuton names beginning with _ar_.
Aquila was a companion of St. Paul; and another Aquila, under Hadrian, wavered long between Judaism and Christianity, and translated the Old Testament into Greek; but Aquila has not been followed save here and there in England and America as a Scripture name.
Agrippa was not well understood by the Romans themselves, though they settled that it meant one born with his feet foremost. The explanation we quote from Professor Aufrecht: “He (Gellius) ascribes to that preposterous birth all the calamities which befell the world through Agrippa’s ill-starred descendants. ‘To fall on one’s feet’ was therefore no auspicious event in Italy. But how can we possibly reconcile that signification with the etymology? I think the legs peep out of the _pp_, and that _ppa_ is probably a contraction of _peda_. In Greek Ἀκρόπους means only ‘the beginning or tip of the foot;’ but it might as well have signified an individual, who, on entering this shaky world of ours, philosophically chose to take a firm ‘stand-point,’ rather than begin by a foolish act, and plunge into it headlong.” It was at first a prænomen, but became a cognomen in the clan of Menenius and of many others. Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa was the friend and son-in-law of Augustus. From him the Herods called themselves Agrippa; and his daughter was the first of those ladies named Agrippina, whose tragic stories mark the early years of the Roman empire. Cornelius Agrippa was probably assumed by the learned man of Cologne, who has connected it in the popular mind with alchemy and necromancy. St. Agrippina was martyred at Rome under Valerian, and her remains being transferred to Girgenti in Sicily, she became known to the Greeks. Her name is used in Russia in the softened form of Agrafina, and the rude contraction Gruscha or Grunja. Some suggest that Agrippa may be the Greek ἀργίπους (swift-footed).
The city of Alba Longa doubtless took its first name from that universal word that named the Alps, the Elbe, Elves, Albion, and Albin from their whiteness, and left _albus_ still the adjective in Rome. Legend declared that the city was called from the white sow with fifty piglings, who directed Æneas to its site; but, however this might be, it was the source of the family of Albinus in the Postumian gens, whence, slightly altered, came the name of the soldier Albanus, the British martyr, whose death led to the change from Verulamium to St. Albans, and from whom we take the English Christian name of Alban. Another St. Albanus, or Abban, was an Irish bishop, consecrated by St. Patrick, and probably the source of the Scottish Christian name Albany, which was often used as a rendering of the Keltic Finn, also meaning white. Another Albanus, or Albinus, of a British family, established in Armorica, was a monastic saint and bishop of Angers, naming the family of St. Aubin; and perhaps William de Albini, the ancestor of the Howards. The modern English feminine Albina, or Albinia, must have been formed as a name of romance from some of these.
SECTION II.—_Augustus._
Augustus is the agnomen conferred by the senate upon the second Cæsar, meaning reverend or set apart, and was selected as hedging him with majesty, though not offending the citizens with the word king. It is closely related to _avigur_ or _augur_, which the Romans said was “_ob avium garritus_” because the augur divined by the chatter of birds; while others make it come from _augeo_ (to increase); but it is not impossible that it may be related to the Teuton _æge_ (awe). At Rome, after Diocletian, the Augustus was always the reigning emperor, the Augusta was his wife; and no one presumed to take the name till the unfortunate Romulus Augustus, called Augustulus in contempt, who ended both the independence of Rome and the empire with the names of their founders.
┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐ │ English. │ French. │ German. │ Lett. │ │Augustus │Auguste │August │Aujusts │ │Gussy │ │ │Justs │ │ │ │ ———————— │ ———————— │ │ │ │ Russian. │ Hungarian. │ │ │ │Avgust │Agoston │ ├───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┤ │ FEMININE. │ ├───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┤ │ English. │ German │ Italian. │ Lusatian. │ │Augusta │Auguste │Augusta │Avgusta │ │Gussie │Asta │ │Gusta │ │ │Guste │ │Gustylka │ │ │Gustel │ │ │ └───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘
The Welsh formed the name of Awst from Augustus; but it does not seem to have been elsewhere used, except as an epithet which the flattering chroniclers bestowed upon Philippe III. of France, until about the middle of the sixteenth century, a fancy seized the small German princes of christening their children by this imperial title. August of Anhalt Plotzgau appears in 1575—seven years earlier, August of Braunsweig Luneburg. Then August of Wolfenbüttel names his daughter Anne Augusta; and we all recollect the Elector Johann August of Saxony, memorable as the prisoner of Charles V. Thenceforth these names flourished in Germany, and took up their abode in England with the Hanoverian race.
The diminutive had, however, been adopted under the Roman empire in later times, and was borne by the great Father Augustinus of Hippo, and his namesake, the missionary of the Saxons. This was chosen by a Danish bishop as a Latinization of his proper name of Eystein (island stone); and it has always been somewhat popular, probably owing to the order of Augustin or Austin Friars, instituted in honour of the first St. Augustin, and once the greatest sheep owners in England. S
┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐ │ English. │ French. │ German. │ Spanish. │ │Augustin │Augustin │Augustin │Augustino │ │Austin │ │ │ │ ├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤ │ Portuguese. │ Italian. │ Polish. │ │ │Agostinho │Aogostino │Agostin │ │ ├───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┤ │ FEMININE. │ ├───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┤ │ Irish. │ French. │ German. │ Italian. │ │Augusteen │Augustine │Augustine │Agostina │ │ │ │Stine │ ————————— │ │ │ │ │ Portuguese. │ │ │ │ │Agostinha │ └───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘
SECTION III.—_Blasius._
Some consider Blasius to be a mere contraction of the Greek _basilios_ (royal); but long before that name prevailed, at least among historical personages, we hear of Blatius, Blattius, or Blasius, as a man of Salapia, in Apulia, whose name seems to have signified a babbler. Nevertheless, Blasio was a surname in the Cornelian gens, and Blasius was Bishop of Sebaste, in Nicomedia, where he was martyred in 316. In the time of the Crusades, his relics were imported from the East, he became patron of the republic of Ragusa; and from a tradition that he had been combed to death with iron combs, such an implement was his mark, and he was the favourite saint of the English wool-staplers. The only vestige of this as a name in England is, however, in Goldsmith’s _Madam Blase_; but in Spanish Blas is used, as no reader of _Gil Blas_ can forget. Blasius is found in Bavaria; and Plase, Blase, Bleisig, and Bläsing, are surnames thence derived.
┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐ │ English. │ French. │ Spanish. │ Portuguese. │ │Blaze │Blaise │Blas │Braz │ │Blase │Blaisot │ │ │ ├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤ │Italian. │ German. │ Dutch. │ Russian. │ │Biagio │Blasius │Blaas │Vlassij │ │Biasio │Blasi │ │Vlass │ │Baccio │Blasol │ │ │ ├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤ │ Servian. │ Illyrian. │ Hungarian. │ │ │Blazej │Blasko │Balás │ │ │ │Vlaho │ │ │ │ │Bearck │ │ │ └───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘
The Germans have even the feminine Blasia.[63]
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Footnote 63:
Smith; Brand; Michaelis.
SECTION IV.—_Cæsar, &c._
No cognomen has ever been so much used as that of Cæsar, which first began in the Julian gens, nearly two centuries before the time of the great Dictator. Some derived it, like Cæso, from _cædo_ (to cut); others said that the eyes of the first owner of it were unusually blue (_cæsius_), or that his hair (_cæsaries_) was wonderfully profuse; and a fourth explanation declared that it was the Moorish word for an elephant, which one of the Julii had slain with his own hand in Africa. However this might be, adoption into the family of Cæsar was the means of obtaining that accumulation of magisterial offices that placed the successor of Julius at the head of affairs, civil and military; and whilst habits of republican equality were still retained by the emperors, Cæsar was merely used as their designation. After the first twelve, adoption could no longer be strained into any fiction of the continuance of the Julian clan, and Cæsar became more properly a title. After the new arrangement of the empire under Diocletian, Augustus was the title of the emperor who had become an actual monarch, and Cæsar of the heir to the empire with considerable delegated power. In consequence, when Charlemagne relieved Rome from the attacks of the Lombards, the pope, as the representative of the S.P.Q.R., created him Cæsar, and the title has been carried on among his German representatives as Kaiser, though no elected “King of the Romans” might assume this sacred title until he had been crowned by the pope’s own hand. As a Christian name it has seldom occurred. Cesare Borgia was named, like many Italians of his date, in the classical style, but no one wished to inherit it from him, and it is seldom found except in France as Cesar; though in some counties of England the peasantry give it in baptism, having taken it, perhaps, from the surname Cæsar. The only feminine I can find is Cesarina Grimaldi, in 1585. Kaiser occurs in the same manner in Germany.
Camilla was a warlike Volscian nymph, dedicated to the service of Diana, and celebrated in the _Æneid_. Her name is said to have been Casmilla, and to have been given as meaning that she was a votaress of Diana. It is believed to be an Etruscan word, and the youth of both sexes were termed Camilli and Camillæ when employed in any solemn office; and thus Camillus became a name in the gens of Furius, and was noted in him who saved the capitol. Nymphs always had an attraction for the French, and a Camille figures in Florian’s romance of _Numa Pompilius_, while Camilla was adopted in the rage for classical names which actuated the English after the Reformation, and in some few families it has been handed on to the present day. Camillo was revived with classical names in Italy; and at the time of the Revolution, Camille was very fashionable in France. Camilla is still very common in the Abruzzi, its old classic ground.
Clemens came in so late that it hardly deserves to be called a cognomen, but we find it as the third name of Titus Flavius Clemens, Vespasian’s nephew, who was put to death by Domitian, on a charge of atheism, like others who went over to the Jewish superstition, _i. e._ to Christianity. A very early church at Rome is dedicated to him, and he is thought by some to be the same as the Clemens mentioned by St. Paul (Phil. iv. 3), author of two epistles, and first of nine bishops of Rome so called. Another great Father, St. Clemens of Alexandria, was likewise of the same name; besides a martyr of Ancyra, all called from the adjective _clemens_, which has much the same meaning as its derivative clement in all modern tongues. Its origin is uncertain: some saying it meant of clear mind, others of inclining mind; but the substantive Clementia was a personified idea, worshipped at Rome as a goddess, bearing a cup in one hand and a lance in the other. “Your Clemency” became a title of the emperors, and we find the orator Tertullus even addressing it to Felix. It is possible that it was thus that Clemens first passed to the emperor’s kinsman. There is a pretty legend that St. Clement was martyred by being beheaded, and thrown into the sea, where a shrine (I think of coral) was formed round his head, and he thus became the patron of sailors, above all, of Danes and Dutchmen. In Germany Clemens has preserved its Latin form, but cuts down into Klenim, Mente, Menz, Mentzel; as in Denmark into Klemet and Mens. The English surname, Mence, may perhaps be from this source; and Clement and Clementi are French and Italian surnames, as Clement and Clemente are the Christian ones. Italy probably first modernized the abstract goddess into Clemenza, whence France took up Clémence, while Germany invented Clementine for the feminine, whence our Clementina, rendered popular for a time in honour of the Italian lady in _Sir C. Grandison_. The Russians have Kliment, the Hungarians Kelemen, and the Esthonians contract the name into Lemet. It must have been from the Dutch connections of eastern England, that Clement and Clemency were both at one time frequent.[64]
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Footnote 64:
Smith; Cave; Marryat, _Jutland_; Michaelis.
SECTION V.—_Constantius._
Constantius arose likewise as late as any cognomen deserving to be reckoned. It comes from _constans_ (constant), a word meaning holding together firmly, and compounded of _con_ (together), and _stans_, the
## participle of the verb _sto_ (I am, or I stand).
So late, indeed, did Constantius become prominent in history in the person of Flavius Valerius Constantius, that he does not even seem to have had a prænomen, and his sons and grandsons varied the cognomen by way of distinction into Constans and Constantinus. Of these the first Christian emperor rendered the diminutive glorious, and though it has not been much copied in the West, Κονστάντινος is one of the very few Latin names that have been Latinized among the Greeks, as well it might be, in memory of the emperor who transported the seat of empire to a Greek city, and changed its appellation from Byzantium to Constantinopolis.
Constantius Chlorus was very popular in Britain, and—as has been said before—the belief that his wife Helena was of British birth, held the island firm in its allegiance till the death of the last emperor who claimed kindred with him. And then Constantius and Constantinus were names assumed by the rebels who first began to break the bonds of union with the empire, as if the sound were sure to win British hearts. Indeed, Cystenian has never entirely disappeared from the Welsh nomenclature, nor Kusteninn from Brittany.
Perhaps one charm of the name to a Kelt was its first syllable, which resembles the _con_ or _cu_ (wisdom or _hound_), which was one of their favourite beginnings. The Constantines of Hector Boece’s line of Scottish kings are ornamental Congals and Conchobars; and, in like manner, Ireland has turned many a Connal and Connor into Constantine in more modern times, accounting for the prevalence of the trisyllabled Roman as a surname.
In Russia Konstantin has been carried on, especially since the days of Catharine II., as a witness to the continuation of the Byzantine empire in that of Muscovy; and here and in the other Slavonian countries alone does it really prevail as a popular name, frequent enough for vernacular contractions, such as Kostja, Kosto, Kostadin.
The feminine of both names was used by the daughters of the imperial family, and Constantia continued among the Provençal ladies, so as to be brought to the throne of France by the termagant Constance of Provence, wife to that meek sovereign, Robert the Pious. She is said to have insisted on his composing a Latin hymn in her honour, when he, not being in a mood for flattery, began to sing “_O constantia martyrum_” which she took as a personal compliment. Constance has ever since been a royal and noble name in France, but the unfortunate Breton duchess, mother of Arthur, probably received it as a supposed feminine to Conan, the name of her father. Italy made it Gostanza, and the Sicilian mother of Frederick II. transmitted it to Germany as Constanz, or Stanze. Her great granddaughter, the heiress of Manfred’s wrongs, took it to Spain as Constanza, the traces of which we see in the Custance, by which Chaucer calls that excellent daughter of Pedro the Cruel, who was the wife of John of Gaunt. After her time it was common in England, and it is startling to find a real Constance de Beverley in disgrace in the reign of Henry VIII., not, however, for forging Marmion’s letters, but for the much more excusable misdemeanour of attending the Marchioness of Exeter in a stolen visit to the Nun of Kent. In the times immediately after the Reformation, Constance died away, then came forth as Constantia in the Minerva press, and at present reigns among the favourite fancy names.
Kostancia, Kotka, Stanca are used in the Slavonian countries, but far less commonly than the masculine Constantine, which is almost entirely disregarded by the Teuton side of Europe.
SECTION VI.—_Crispus, &c._
Crispus (curled, or wrinkled), the same word which has produced our crisp; and the French _crépé_ (applied to hair), became a cognomen, and in late times produced Crispinus and Crispinianus, two brothers who accompanied St. Quentin when he preached the Gospel in France. They settled at Soissons, and there, while pursuing their mission, supported themselves by making shoes until their martyrdom, A.D. 287. Shoemakers, of course, adopted them as their patrons, and theirs was a universal holiday.
“Oh! that we now had here But one ten thousand of those men in England Who do no work to-day.”
That day being the 25th of October, that of the battle of Agincourt, of which King Henry augurs—
“And Crispin, Crispian, shall ne’er go by, From this day to the ending of the world, But we in it shall be remembered.”
Crispin has never been a frequent Christian name, but it has become a surname with us, and the French have Crêpin, Crêpet, and the Italians Crispino. _Crispin_ is still the French for a shoemaker’s last. Crêpin means a little stool which the Irish call a creepeen.
Drusus, a cognomen in the Livian gens, was only accounted for among the Romans by a story that its first owner took it from having killed a chieftain in Gaul named Drausus. This word is explained by comparative philologists as firm or rigid in Keltic, _Drud_, strong, in Welsh, _droth_ in Erse. Either the Gaul was the real cause of the surname, or it is an instance of the Keltic element in old Italian. It is hardly worthy of notice, except that, in imitation of the sister and daughter of his patron Caligula, Herod Agrippa called his daughter by the feminine diminutive Drusilla, by which she appears by the side of Felix, hearing but little regarding the discourse of St. Paul.
The name of Felix himself was an agnomen frequently assumed by peculiarly fortunate individuals. It meant happy, and has given rise to all manner of words of good augury in the modern languages. No less than eleven saints so called are numbered in the Roman calendar, and yet it has never been a popular name, though sometimes occurring in Spain and France in the original form, and as Felice in Italy. The feminines, Felicia and Félise, in England and France, have been constructed from it, and Felicia was Queen of Navarre in 1067; but the abstract idea, Felicitas (happiness), once worshipped as a goddess at Rome, named the slave-martyr of Carthage, who suffered with St. Perpetua. There was another Felicitas who, with her seven sons, under Antoninus Pius, presented a Christian parallel to the mother in the Maccabees. Felicità in Italy, and Félicité in France, are the votaries of one or others of these. Felix is adopted in Ireland as a substitute for Feidlim or Phelim (ever good).
Faustus and Faustina are formed exactly in the same spirit of good augury, and Fausto is sometimes an Italian name.[65]
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Footnote 65:
Facciolati; Diefenbach; Smith; Butler; Anderson: _Irish Society_; Grimm.
SECTION VII.—_Galerius, &c._
The Teutonic _helm_ (protection), turned in the Latin pronunciation into _galea_ (helmet), named the persecuting Emperor Galerius, and continued in Lombardy till it formed that of Galeazzo, which became notable among the Visconti of Milan, and was called by the French Galeas. Old Camden augured that the first Galearono was so called from all the cocks in Milan crowing at the time of his birth, and certainly, unless the frequent Roman cognomen Gallus indicates a partly Gallic extraction, it would either be one of the farming names, and show that the owner was notable for his poultry, or be a differently spelt variety from Galea or helmet. Galileo, Galilei, and Galeotti are all Italian continuations of this old Latin name—that is, if the great astronomer’s name be not in honour of Galilee. It is also possible that it may be connected with the Keltic _Gal_ (courage, or a stranger), which occurs again as the Irish saint who founded an abbey in Switzerland; but more of this in Keltic regions of names.
Niebuhr considers the Prisci to have been the original Latin tribe, whose name acquired its sense of age from their antiquity, just as Gothic was at one time a French and English synonym for antiquated. Priscus was the Porcian cognomen, probably denoting the descent of the gens from the Prisci; and he whom we are accustomed to call Cato the elder, as a translation of Marcus Porcius Priscus Cato, was the first to add the second cognomen, the meaning of which is wary, from Catus, probably a contraction from Cautus (cautious). Priscus and Prisca are both found in the Roman martyrology; but to us the most interesting person thus named is Priscilla, the fellow-worker of St. Paul, in honour of whom this diminutive has had some prevalence in England, though somewhat of a puritan kind.
Sabinus, of course indicating a Sabine family, occurs among the Flavii, and many other gentes. Sabina was the second name of that Poppæa, Nero’s wife, whose extravagances have become a proverb, who bathed in asses' milk, and shod her mules with gold. As a frequent cognomen, this was the name of many other women, and specially of a widow who was converted by her maid, Seraphia, to the Christian faith, and was martyred in Hadrian’s persecution. There is a church at Rome dedicated to her, which was formerly the first “Lent station,” a fact which commended her to the notice of the Germans, and has made Sabine frequent among them. Sabina is often found among the peasantry about Gloucester, but it is possible that this may be a corruption of Sabrina (the Severn).
Serenus (serene, or good-tempered) was an old cognomen, and two saints were so called. Serena was the niece of Theodosius, and wife of Stilicho. Her appellation was chosen by Hayley for the heroine of his _Triumphs of Temper_; but it is more often imaginary than real. In Norway, however, it has been revived as an ornamental form of Siri, the contraction of Sigrid.
Scipio means nothing but a staff; but it is a highly honourable title, since it was given to one of the Cornelii, who served as the staff of his old blind father; and the same filial piety distinguished the great Africanus when, at seventeen, he saved the life of his father in the battle of the Ticinus. Distinguished as is the cognomen it has not often been followed, though Scipione has occasionally occurred in Italy, and if Gil Blas may be trusted, in Spain.
Traherne, an old Welsh name, is formed from Trajanus, which belonged to others besides the emperor, whose noble qualities had made such an impression on the Italian mind as to have led to the remarkable tradition that St. Gregory the Great had obtained permission to recall him from the grave, and convert him to the true faith.
Torques (a neck-chain) gave the cognomen Torquatus to the fierce Lucius Manlius, who, having slain a gigantic Gaul in single combat, took the gold chain from about his neck, and hung it on his own; and who afterwards put his son, Titus Manlius Torquatus, to death for the breach of discipline in accepting a like challenge from a Tusculan noble. Torquato Tasso is the sole modern instance of the recurrence of the surname of this “Roman Father,” the northern Torquil being from an entirely different source, _i.e._ Thorgils (Thor’s pledge).[66]
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Footnote 66:
Pott; Michaelis; Camden; Diefenbach; _Philological Society_; Niebuhr; Butler; Dante; Arnold.
SECTION VIII.—_Paullus and Magnus [small and large]._
The precedence must be given to the _less_ on account of its far greater dignity.
There can be no doubt that the cognomen Paullus, or Paulus, the contraction of Pauxillus, originated with one of the Æmilian gens, who was small in stature. It was common in other gentes, though chiefly distinguished among the Æmilii, and was most probably the name by which “Saul of Tarsus” would have been enrolled as a citizen, either from its resemblance to his Jewish name, or from the person who had conferred liberty upon his parents.
┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐ │ English. │ French. │ Italian. │ Portuguese. │ │Pawl │Pol │Paolo │Paulo │ │Paul │Paul │ │ │ │ │Paulot │ │ │ ├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤ │ Spanish. │ Wallachian. │ German. │ Russian. │ │Pablo │Pawel │Paul │Pavel │ │ │ │ ——————— │Pavlenka │ │ │ │ Dutch. │Pavluscha │ │ │ │Paultje │ │ ├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤ │ Illyrian. │ Lett. │ Hungarian. │ Lapp. │ │Pavl │Pavils │Pal │Pava │ │Pavle │ │Palko │Pavek │ │Pavo │ │ │ │ ├───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┤ │ FEMININE. │ ├───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┤ │ Italian. │ Spanish. │ Russian. │ Illyrian. │ │Paola │Pala │Paola │Pava │ ├───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┤ │ DIMINUTIVE. │ ├───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┤ │ Welsh. │ Italian. │ Spanish. │ Slavonic. │ │Peulan │Paolino │Paulino │Pavlin │ ├───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┤ │ FEMININE. │ ├───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┤ │ English. │ French. │ Italian. │ German. │ │Paulina │Pauline │Paolina │Pauline │ │ │Paulette │Paoletta │ ——————— │ │ │ │ │ Slavonic. │ │ │ │ │Pavlina │ └───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘
Some, however, imagine that he assumed it out of compliment to the deputy, Sergius Paulus; others, that it was an allusion to his “weakness” of “bodily presence,” or that he took it in his humility, meaning that he was “less than the least of the Apostles.” Be that as it may, he has given it an honour entirely outshining that which is won from the Æmilii, and has spread Paul throughout Europe. The strong presumption that St. Paul preached the Gospel in Spain has rendered Pablo very common there; but, in fact, the name is everywhere more usual than in England, in spite of the tradition that the great Apostle likewise landed here, and the dedication of our great cathedral. Perhaps this may be owing to the fact that twelve other SS. Paul divide the allegiance of the Continent with the Apostle. Paula is not only honoured as his feminine, but as the name of the friend and correspondent of St. Jerome, the mother of Eustochium; and Paola is in consequence found in Italy. Paulinus (the lengthened form) became in Welsh, Pewlin, and also named three saints—among them our first Northumbria, bishop of York; but it has not been followed, except in Italy, by Paolina, and _there_ is, perhaps, a mere diminutive of Paulus. Yet the feminine is far more fashionable; and Paulina, Pauline, Paolina, are the favourite forms everywhere occurring. Perhaps Pauline became the more popular in France for the sake of that favourite grandchild whose Christian name is almost the only one mentioned in Madame de Sévigné’s letters. It was the only form commonly recognized in France; but it seems that the sister of Napoleon was commonly called Paulette in her own family. The direct Italian diminutive always seems to be a greater favourite with the southern blood than its relative from the northern _chen_.
The adjective of size is another word of universal kindred, though not always with the same meaning. The Sanscrit _mahat_, and Persian _mi_ or _meah_, are close connections of the Gothic _mikils_ (which survives in mickle and muckle, and has furnished our much), and of the Greek μεγαλος or μεγας, and Roman _magnus_ and Slavonic _magi_. All these possibly may be remotely connected with the verb _magan_ (may), which is the source of _macht_ (might) in all Teutonic tongues.
Magnus was an agnomen added as a personal distinction, as in the case of Pompey. It was never a name till long after the Roman empire was over, when Karl der Grösse, as his Franks called him, had been Latinized into Carolus Magnus, and honoured by the French as Charlemagne. St. Olaf of Norway was known to be a great admirer of Charlemagne, whose example he would fain have imitated, and his followers, by way of a pleasant surprise and compliment to him, before they woke him to announce to him the birth of his first son, christened the child, as they thought, after the latter half of the great Emperor Carolus Magnus. That child became a much-beloved monarch, under the denomination of King Magnus Barefoot, from his having established his identity on his return from Ireland, by the ordeal of walking unshod over red-hot ploughshares. In honour of his many excellencies, as King of Norway, the entire North uses his name of Magnus, and transplanted it to Ireland, where it flourished under the form of Manus, until it became the fashion to ‘Anglicize’ it into Manasses. The Scottish islands, where the population is Norse, likewise use Magnus as a baptismal name; and the Lapps have turned it into Manna, or Mannas.
Maximus was likewise properly an individual agnomen of size, or of victory, as with Fabius Maximus; but it came to be a proper name, and was borne by Maximus the Monk, a great Greek ecclesiastic of the sixth century, as well as by many other obscure saints, from whom the Italians derive their Massimo, and the French Maxime, and the Welsh their old Macsen.
Maxentius and Maximinus, both named not only persecuting emperors, but Christian martyrs, whence Maxime and Maximien. Maximilianus was one of the Seven Sleepers, but he is not the origin of the German imperial name. According to Camden, this was a compound invented by the Emperor Frederick VII., and bestowed on his son in his great admiration of Fabius Maximus and Scipio Æmilianus. “The Last of the Knights,” with his wild effrontery and spirited chamois-hunting might be despised by the Italians, as _Massimiliano Pochi Danari_; but he was beloved by the Austrians as “Our Max.” His great grandson, Maximilian II., contributed to the popularity of his unwieldy name, and Max continues to be one of the favourite German appellations, from the archduke to the peasant, to the present day; and has even thrown out the feminine Maximiliane. The Poles and Illyrians use _ks_ instead of _x_ in spelling it.
SECTION IX.—_Rufus, &c._
Rufus, the red or ruddy, was a cognomen of various families, and was, in fact, one of the adjectives occurring in the nomenclature of almost every nation; and chiefly of those where a touch of Keltic blood has made the hair vary between red and black. Flavius, Fulvius, Rufus, and an occasional Niger, were the Roman names of complexion; and it is curious to find the single instances of Chlorus (the yellow), occurring in the Flavian family. The Biondi of Italy claim to be the Flavii, and thence the Blound, Count de Guisnes, companion of William the Conqueror, took the name now Blount!
Rufus is, indeed, the Latin member of the large family of which we spoke in mentioning the Greek Rhoda; and the Kelts had, in plenty, their own Ruadh or Roy; nevertheless, such as fell under Roman dominion adopted the Roman Rufus or Rufinus; and it passed on by tradition in Wales, as Gruffin, Gruffydd, or as the English caught it and spelt it, correctly representing the sound of _dd_, Griffith. It was the name of many Welsh princes, and has passed into a frequent surname.
In its Gruffin stage, it passed into the commonwealth of romance. Among the British names that had worked through the lost world of minstrelsy, to reappear in the cycle with which Italian poets graced the camp and court of Charlemagne, is Grifone, a descendant of Bevis of Hampton. By this time, no doubt, his name was supposed to be connected with the Griffin, that creature with _griffes_, or claws; that after having served in earlier times, as with Dante, to represent the Italian idea of the vision of the cherubim, had been gradually degraded to a brilliant portion of the machinery of romance.
No doubt the Italians who bore the name of Grifone, thought more of the “right Griffin” and the true knight, than of the ruddy Roman whose Ruffino or Ruffo was still left lingering among them; together with Rufina, the name of a virgin martyr.
Rufus is, for some reason or other, rather a favourite at present with our American neighbours.
Niger (the black) was a cognomen of various Romans of no great note, and distinguished a teacher from Antioch, mentioned in the Acts. The diminutive Nigellus seems to have been adopted in France, by the Normans, as a translation of the Nial which they had brought from Norway, after having learned it of the Gael, in whose tongue it means the noble. In Domesday Book, twelve proprietors are recorded as Nigel, both before and after the Conquest, being probably Danish Nials thus reduced to the Neustrian French Latin. Of these was Nigel de Albini (_temp._ William I.), and Nigel de Mowbray (_temp._ Henry II.). The influx of Anglo-Normans into Scotland introduced this new-fashioned Nigel, and it was adopted as the English form of Niel, and has since become almost exclusively confined to Scotland, where it is a national name, partly perhaps in memory of the untimely fate of Niel or Nigel Bruce; and among the covenanters, for the sake of the fierce Nigel Leslie, Master of Rothes. It has shared the fate of Colin and of the true Nial, and has been taken for Nicolas. The French used a like name, which Froissart spells Nesle; but this is probably from the inference that a lengthened sound of _e_ infers a silent _s_.
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