Editing Roman naming conventions (section)

===Nomen===
The ''[[nomen gentilicium]]'', or "gentile name",{{efn-lr|Although this use of the term ''gentile'' has the same origin as the term used to distinguish non-Jews from the Jewish population, its meaning is purely civil and has nothing to do with ethnic or religious identity; in this use it simply refers to a member of a gens, distinguished by his or her surname, and in this sense the term ''gentile name'' is used today without any religious connotation, despite (or perhaps because of) the use of ''Christian name'' to refer to personal names. In this sense, Romanized Jews could also be gentiles, and gentiles could be Jewish! This is also the origin of the term ''gentleman''; the association of gentlemen with courtesy developed later.}} designated a Roman citizen as a member of a gens. A gens, which may be translated as "clan", constituted an extended Roman group of individuals, all of whom shared the same nomen and claimed descent from a common ancestor. Particularly in the early Republic, the gens functioned as a state within the state, observing its own sacred rites and establishing private laws, which were binding on its members, although not on the community as a whole.<ref>''[[Oxford Classical Dictionary]]'', 2nd Ed. (1970), "Gens."</ref>