Questions tagged [names]
For questions about personal names (Ancient and Modern) in the Latin language.
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questions
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Female Names and Heritable *Cognomina*
Suppose I want to speak of the daughter of a man with a heritable cognonmen. Let us take Marcus Tullius Cicero as an example. If I want to clarify that the Tullia I am speaking of is his daughter (...
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4answers
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A personal name ending in -ua: is it male or female?
We have the name of a Romano-British Potter from the 2nd century A.D. whose name is SECVNDVA. Is this a male or a female name?
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Did Romulus and Remus have other names?
Throughout Classical times, Romans would often have several names: one person might be identified by praenomen, nomen gentilicum, cognomen, agnomen, signum, and patronymic, all together.
Were Roman ...
5
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1answer
76 views
Colonna as cognomen
I am working on the Italian Renaissance soldier Stefano Colonna.
How would his name be written in Latin, as a label or signature,
Stephanus? What is the proper genitive for "of the Colonna family"?
...
4
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4answers
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What do you call a mind bender in Latin?
There is a video game character called mind bender. Among other things, he can make an enemy unit run over to your side, that is, turn a foe into friend.
That's why he can bend their minds.
What ...
4
votes
1answer
127 views
Pronunciation of Jehovæ
The Tremellius and Junio's Bible in Is. 60:1-2 renders the Hebrew name of God (יהוה) as Jehovæ. how is this word properly pronounced in Latin?
Thanks!
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Gender and etymology of name “Herena”
I found that Herena is the name of a Christian saint from the 3rd century. Virtually nothing is known about Herena's life, but my question is about the name:
Is it a feminine name or masculine, or ...
4
votes
1answer
383 views
Latinisation of a surname. Seeking advice from expert Latinists
I have a need to Latinise a surname (details about that name are provided further down in my question) rather urgently, but with my miniscule knowledge of Latin I cannot do that myself well. I hope ...
4
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2answers
445 views
How do you latinize the name “Cole”?
Salvete,
I can't figure out how I would go about latinizing my name. I would also
appreciate a declension of my latinized name. I was thinking that maybe "Colus,"
"Colis," or "Coleus" could work, ...
10
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0answers
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Which name came first, Lucius or Λουκᾶς?
The etymology of the name Luke is commonly said to be the Latin name Lucas, itself from Lucius, from the praenomen Lucius, from the root Lux (gen. Lucis).
[A separate etymology says Λουκᾶς/Λουκανός, ...
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2answers
101 views
How to say “Indiana Jones” in Latin?
I know that usually we do not translate names, but how would you translate Indiana Jones into Latin?
According to Wikipedia, Jones is literally John's son in Welsh, and it's related to Latin Ioannes ...
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votes
1answer
97 views
How were names ending in -ιον used in Greek?
In the plays of Plautus, there are some names ending in -um. They are generally formed as Greek names (whether genuine or pseudo-Greek), and the Latin ending -um here seems to correspond to the Greek ...
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How often were names ending in -um used in real life?
There seem to be a number of examples of personal names ending in -um in the works of Plautus (apparently, they also show up in Terence1). In a discussion on Wiktionary, I found an interesting comment ...
6
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2answers
254 views
Male personal names ending in -um
A number of personal names in the works of Plautus end in -um in the nominative singular, which struck me as odd when I first encountered them, since nominative singular -um is characteristically ...
4
votes
3answers
323 views
What did the Greeks and Romans call their pets?
I know that some Greeks and Romans kept pet canēs, cattī, and even dracōnēs. My question now is: what did they name them?
In other words, do we have attestations of how the ancients named their pets? ...
7
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3answers
290 views
Why is Descartes Latinised as Cartesius?
The famous French philosopher Rene Descartes is Latinised as Renatus Cartesius. Those unfamiliar with this, or with his thought in general, might then not realise that some words are derived from his ...
5
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1answer
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How are “Arsaces” and “Gotarzes” declined, and why?
Declinatione nominum latinorum a nominibus graecis quae -ης finiuntur perturbor.
Dictionarium L&S exhibet "Arsăces, is m." a nomine graeco Ἀρσάκης. (E in syllaba ultima de "Arsăces" longum esse ...
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1answer
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Are there gender-neutral names in Latin?
Latin has some "epicene nouns", like canis "dog", which can be either masculine or feminine: a good dog could be either a canis bonus or a canis bona, depending on the dog in question.
Are there any ...
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0answers
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How were Greek patronymics stressed in Latin?
According to Wikipedia, the Scipios (as in Africanus) were known collectively as the Scīpiadae rather than the Scīpionēs. This was a rather poetic Greek way to say "sons of Scipio", as in the Atreïdae ...
3
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1answer
312 views
How do you pronounce “Aeclepiadae”?
Just as the title says. Or should it really be "Asclepiadae", since it comes from "Asclepius"?
5
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2answers
141 views
Latin form of Igor
How would you translate the name Igor into Latin? The Latin Wikipedia uses Inguarus (e.g. Inguarus Stravinskij), which is the Latinised version of Ingvar.
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2answers
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What is the Latin name for the Romani people?
The Romani (aka Gypsies, though some consider that a slur) are nomadic people who dispersed across Europe about a thousand years ago. In other languages they have exonyms like tzigane, gitan, and ...
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2answers
913 views
Request to convert name into Latin
Kindly anyone change the name in Latin form please.
Name:
Hafiz Muhammad Umer Jahagir
Please translate it into Latin.
5
votes
1answer
133 views
Names of main Tintin characters in latin?
The website Tintinologist.org gives the following suggestions but it is not complete for the latin language.
What would be some good latin names for the various Tintin characters ?
Other characters ...
5
votes
2answers
114 views
Someone of someplace
I'm wondering how someone would have said where they're from, sort of as a locational surname. To perhaps better explain, in English we might say, 'Hello, I'm Susan of London.' How would you say ...
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0answers
134 views
“Alēctō” or “Allēctō”?
"Alēctō" is the name of one of the Furies, made surprisingly famous in the Harry Potter books. It seems to come straightforwardly from Greek ă- "not" + lēg- "stop" + -tos "[adjective]", so "...
9
votes
1answer
181 views
Hexametric Greek names
A number of Greek names encountered in hexameter follow the syllable length pattern -vv-; consider for example Penelope, Telemachos, Calliope, Terpsichore.
The pattern -v-- is absent as the metric ...
5
votes
2answers
105 views
Unde “Laelaps”?
Laelaps was a mythical hunting dog that could always catch its prey. The name comes from Greek λαῖλαψ, "hurricane".
But where does this word come from? LSJ doesn't provide an etymology, and ...
8
votes
2answers
295 views
In what contexts, exactly, did Augustus use the name Octavianus?
Wikipedia says Caesar Augustus was born Gaius Octavius Thurinus, making his nomen Octavius and that nomen would have held sway prior to his ascension to emperor.
Screenwriters, though, seem always to ...
7
votes
2answers
182 views
Do barbarians have nomina?
The word nomen means, literally, "name". But it also refers to the most important part of a Roman citizen's name, the part indicating which gens they belong to.
Barbarian names were frequently ...
5
votes
0answers
222 views
Was the name “Sasan/Sassan” often spelled with a double S in Latin or Greek?
A question on ELU (“Sassanian” vs. “Sasanian”) brought up the fact that the name of Sāsān has often been spelled in English with a double S in the middle: "Sassan". (The same goes for related words ...
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votes
1answer
117 views
Are there any relationships between the given name Pompeius and the city name Pompeii?
Are there any relationships between the given name Pompeius (like in Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus) and the city name Pompeii (the city thas was destroyed in a volcanic eruption? What do they mean?
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2answers
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Do plural names referring to a singular thing require a plural verb?
Another question related to my geography of the Roman Empire which I am writing has arisen: during the time of Trajan, 117 AD, there were several provinces which had names in the plural, especially ...
7
votes
1answer
498 views
Why didn't Byzantine emperors after Justinian II have a Latin name?
Justinian II had the Latin name Flavius Iustinianus Augustus and was the last Byzantine emperor from the Heraclian Dynasty, but his successor Philippikos Bardanes did not have a Latin name. Why didn't ...
7
votes
1answer
195 views
Is there a canonical list of Latinized names?
I'm not only talking about names that existed during the classical period, but also the standard Latinization of modern European names; for example hugo, hugonis is the standard medieval Latin ...
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2answers
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How would one translate “The God-Machine”?
In the Chronicles of Darkness role-playing game, one of the major antagonists is called "the God-Machine": a machine so powerful it seems similar to a god.
I know Latin generally prefers not to stick ...
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votes
2answers
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Latin transliteration of Ιησούς
Can someone please show me how the Latin Iesus came from Iesous? It sounds like a shorter form of it. Is it just because certain sounds from the Greek wasn't in Latin?
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2answers
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Where did the name Ulixes come from?
He's Odysseus in Homer, but how did he become Ulixes/Ulysses when he arrived (so to speak) in Rome, where there were many people who knew him from the Iliad and the Odyssey?
And was there a separate ...
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1answer
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Napoleon/ Scipio [closed]
Students of North & Hillard will be aware that Ex. 229 is a passage about Napoleon. In the answer book Ex. 229 is a passage concerning Scipio.
Does anyone know the refs for the Latin trans. of "...
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3answers
298 views
What is the etymology and origin of the name of Dido's sister Anna?
Dido's sister and confidante Anna has a name that I believe to be unusual in Latin. Where did this name come from? Is it perhaps Semitic and related to Hebrew Hannah and the derived name Anna? The ...
5
votes
1answer
178 views
How do we end up with three vowels at the end of Περικλέους? (Greek)
According to Wiktionary, the genitive of Περικλῆς, or Περικλέης, is Περικλέους; and similarly, that of Σοφοκλῆς, or Σοφοκλέης, Σοφοκλέους.
Question: How do we end up with three vowels, εου, at the ...
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Inflections of Ζεύς
Διώνη is the name of a Titaness, a nymph, and Phoenician goddess. And according to the Wikipedia article on said Titaness, it's derived from the feminine form of the genitive of Ζεύς. And according to ...
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1answer
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Feminine form of -ίδης
The Ancient Greek suffix -ίδης was used to form masculine patronymics - that is to say, one combines it with X to create a name meaning "Son of X". Examples: Ἀλκείδης ("son of Alkaios"), Ἡρακλεῖδαι ("...
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Creating a “fictional” last name, meaning “wild card”
I am on a quest to create a new last name for myself.
I like the idea of "wildcard," particularly in the computing sense: as a placeholder for anything, however I want something that sounds more ...
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1answer
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How did the popularities of Roman given names evolve over time?
When a new Roman was born, the parents would give their child a name (praenomen).
Since there is a significant number of known names, there must have been variations in their relative popularities ...
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1answer
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The Name Timedeus
In a previous question of mine (The Name Amadeus) a fine fellow (code name: "sumelic") conjectured that the name Amadeus comes from the phrase "Ama Deum" ("Love God") with the suffix -us added to ...
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The Names Amadeus, Amadeo, Amadei
Beloved Wikipedia says: Amadeus is a theophoric given name derived from the Latin words ama – the imperative of the word amare (to love) – and deus (god). As a linguistic compound in the form of a ...
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2answers
721 views
Hypocorism/diminutive name forms in Roman antiquity/Latin?
I'd originally asked this on SE:H, but it was suggested that here would be more appropriate.
Triggered by recently reading about the history of English names with Anglo-Saxon roots and the ...
4
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2answers
191 views
Genitive of Sappho: Sapphonis or Sapphus?
As I posted on the Wiktionary Tea Room:
Consulting Bergk's edition of Sappho, I have seem various instances of this genitive "Sapphonis" (e.g. «Sapphonis esse videtur») in the critical notes. This ...
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0answers
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Did the Romans give names to instances of natural disasters?
It is common to name storms.
For example, a hurricane called Harvey is now over Texas.
On the other hand, ancient people named deities related to various places and natural phenomena.
There might be a ...
