Editing Roman naming conventions (section)

==Imperial names==
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During the Republic, a person's names were usually static and predictable, unless he were adopted into a new family or obtained a new surname; in imperial times, however, names became highly variable and subject to change. Perhaps no names were more variable than those of the emperors.{{fact|date = March 2023}} For example, the first emperor, known conventionally as [[Augustus]], began life as {{Smallcaps|C. Octavius C. f.}}, or Gaius Octavius, the son of [[Gaius Octavius (praetor 61 BC)|Gaius Octavius]]. His ancestors had borne the same name for at least four generations.<ref>{{CIL|6|41023}}</ref>{{primary source inline|date = March 2023}} Although the [[Octavia gens|Octavii]] were an old and distinguished plebeian family, the gens was not divided into ''stirpes'' and had no hereditary cognomina; Octavius' father had put down a slave revolt at [[Thurii]] and was sometimes given the surname ''Thurinus'' (a cognomen ''ex virtute''), but this name was not passed down to the son.{{fact|date = March 2023}}

At the age of eighteen in 44 BC, Octavius was nominated ''[[magister equitum]]'' by his granduncle, [[Julius Caesar|Gaius Julius Caesar]], who held the office of [[Roman dictator|dictator]]. On the [[Ides of March]], Caesar was [[Assassination of Julius Caesar|assassinated]], without legitimate children; but in his will he adopted his nephew, who then became {{Smallcaps|C. Julius C. f. Caesar Octavianus}}, "Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus, son of Gaius". Thus far, his name follows the Republican model, becoming that of his adoptive father, followed by his original nomen in the form of an agnomen.{{fact|date = March 2023}}

Two years later, Caesar was deified by the [[Roman Senate]], and Octavian, as he was then known, was styled {{Smallcaps|Divi f.}}, "son of the divine (Caesar)", instead of {{Smallcaps|C. f.}}.{{fact|date = March 2023}} Still later, after having been acclaimed ''[[Imperator]]'' by the troops under his command, Octavian assumed this title as an additional praenomen, becoming {{Smallcaps|Imp. C. Julius Divi f. Caesar Octavianus}}; in some inscriptions his original praenomen is discarded altogether.{{fact|date = March 2023}} In 27 BC, the Senate granted him the title of ''Augustus'', which would ever after be affixed as a cognomen to the names of the Roman emperors.{{fact|date = March 2023}}

A similar pattern was followed by Augustus' heirs.{{says who|date = March 2023}} The emperor's stepson and eventual successor was born ''[[Tiberius|Tiberius Claudius Nero]];'' after his adoption by the emperor, he became ''Tiberius Julius Caesar'' (retaining his original praenomen). His brother, born ''[[Nero Claudius Drusus|Decimus Claudius Nero]]'', subsequently became ''Nero Claudius Drusus'', exchanging his original praenomen for his paternal cognomen, and assuming a new cognomen from his maternal grandfather. Other members of the [[Julio-Claudian dynasty]] used praenomina such as ''Drusus'' and ''Germanicus''.{{fact|date = March 2023}}

In subsequent generations, all reigning emperors assumed ''Imperator'' as an additional praenomen (usually without foregoing their original praenomina), and ''Augustus'' as a cognomen.{{fact|date = March 2023}} ''Caesar'' came to be used as a cognomen designating an heir apparent; and for the first two centuries of the empire, most emperors were adopted by their predecessors.{{fact|date = March 2023}} The result was that each emperor bore a series of names that had more to do with the previous emperor than the names with which he had been born; moreover, they added new cognomina as they fought and conquered enemies and new lands, and their filiations recorded their descent from a series of gods.{{fact|date = March 2023}} As the names of the emperors themselves changed, so did the names of the members of their families.{{fact|date = March 2023}}