NAME

(Let liomeu; Germ, nome; Fr. nom.) The lati on by which any individual is known. The custom adopted in |iersonal nomenclature has been based on some uniform principle since the earliest ages; modified, however, by the varying circumstances of different countries,anil according to the more or le advanced state of civilization of every people. Thus, in the early state of society of the.lews, Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Germans, Gauls, llritons, and indeed of every nation, no individual had more than one name; but in a more advanced or refined period, one or more additional names were given, in order to mark the different families to which Individuals belonged, as well as to distinguish members of the same family from each other. To effect thee objects the ancient Romans, at least those of good family, generally used three names — the pranomen, the nomm, and the cognomen; the first, which was given on the a umption of the toga viriUs, marked the individual, like our Christian name; the second distinguished the gens (which see), and the third the familia (which see), to which he belonged. To these, however, was sometimes added a fourth name, called the agnomen, which was derived from some distinguishing peculiarities in each [s. 823]