COGNOMEN

Cognomen

The cognomen refers to the third name of a citizen of ancient Rome, under Roman naming conventions. The cognomen started as a nickname, but lost that purpose when it became hereditary. Hereditary cognomina were used to augment the second name in order to identify a particular branch within a family or family within a clan. Outside of this particular use of the word, the term has taken on a variety of other meanings in the contemporary era.

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cognomen

Noun

  1. surname
  2. the third part of the name of a citizen of ancient Rome
  3. a nickname or epithet by which someone is identified; a byname; a moniker or sobriquet


The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: cognomen
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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