Ancient Roman names are being rediscovered in the modern world in a major way. Rarely does a whole class of names from a place or historical period undergo this widespread a revival, but several forces are at work that are making us take a fresh look at ancient Roman names.

The first Big Read, which featured “To Kill A Mockingbird” and its hero Atticus Finch brought that name to contemporary consciousness.  Then there was the HBO series Rome.  But “The Hunger Games” which features ancient Roman names for most of its male characters has popularized the genre like nothing else.

Of course, many ancient Roman nameshave survived and thrived in modern times, including some of our picks.  And then there are others that have been slumbering for centuries but are reawakening now.  Here, our favorites from this very appealing group.

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Today’s guest blogger, Nephele, moderator for the ancient Roman forums at UNRV.com (United Nations of Roma Victrix, in case you were wondering), offers us a crash course in ancient Roman girls’ names and naming. Some of these names are still current, like Antonia and Virginia; others, such as Lucilia, are a bit more esoteric.

Modern Western civilization owes much to the legacy of ancient Rome, not the least of its many influences being found in our names.

In the ancient Roman system of naming, each citizen belonged to an ancestral group called a “gens,” and took his name from his particular gens. The traditional form of the Roman name existed in three parts: Roman males would be given a first name at birth, called a “praenomen,” followed by his gens name, and then a last name called a “cognomen” that identified the branch of the gens to which he belonged.

In the time of Rome’s early to middle era, there wasn’t much variety in women’s names. In fact, they generally were given the gens name of their father (in the feminine form), and daughters within the same family were usually distinguished from their sisters by an additional name indicating their position in the birth order.  So the first born would be Prima, the second Secunda, and the third Tertia, etcetera.

Despite the seeming lack of concern of the Romans of this period for bestowing unique names on their girls, we nevertheless have a number of lovely Roman feminine names to consider.  Those listed below are all feminine forms of the gens names that were in use by notable Roman families in the time of Rome’s Republic (509 BCE to 31 BCE), many of which are still heard today.  Those that are less familiar may make especially interesting choices for modern-day girls’ names.

AEMILIA
ANNIA
ANTONIA
AQUILLIA
AULIA
AURELIA
CAECILIA
CARISIA
CASSIA
CATIA
CLAUDIA
CORNELIA
DECIA
FABIA
FANNIA
FLAVIA
JULIA
JUNIA
LICINIA
LIVIA
LOLLIA
LUCCEIA
LUCILIA
LUCRETIA
MAEVIA
NOVIA
OCTAVIA
QUINTIA
QUINTILIA
RUBRIA
SALONIA
SALVIA
SEPTIMIA
SERGIA
SESTIA
SOSIA
TERENTIA
THORIA
TILLIA
VALERIA
VARIA
VIRGILIA
VIRGINIA

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