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Roman Names- Part 1

One of the first things that comes to mind when pondering the life of a woman in Rome is "What would my name have been?" Let's start with a list of known names for women:-
Aemilia
Agrippina
Antonia
Aquilia
Artemis
Atia
Balba
Caecilia
Caenis
Caesonia
Calatoria
Clodia (Claudia)
Cloelia
Corintha
Cornelia
Domitia
Domna
Drusilla
Epicharis
Fulvia
Galla
Graecina
Hortensia
Iris
Julia
Lepida
Lesbia
Licinia
Livia
Livilla
Longina
Lucilla
Lucretia
Maesa
Marcella
Matella
Megallis
Messalina
Metrodora
Murcia
Octavia
Paulina
Placidia
Plautia
Politta
Pomponia
Poppaea
Procula
Publilia
Pulchra
Sabina
Scribonia
Servilia
Severa
Themis
Urgulanilla
Valeria
Vipsania

This is, of course, an incomplete list, and we can never know the names of all those who went unrecorded on monuments, epitaphs, or in legal records. With only 58 to choose from it is limiting, but not only could a woman have a first name, but often two names were combined, especially in the later part of the Roman era; as in Poppaea Sabina. For my part I think I would choose Aquilia Galla. As for what we would call the surname, we'll look at that next time.

Comments

  1. AnonymousMarch 12, 2010 at 3:51 PM

    In my first latin class I was called Caecillia, my best friend was Flavia. Love latin names!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Olympe de la Tour D'AuvergneMarch 16, 2010 at 7:28 PM

    They do have a certain ring to them, don't they? Caecillia is a great name, did you know that it is related to the word "blind"?

    ReplyDelete

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