How They Did It - Baby Names in Ancient Rome (Tria Nomina) 

are you telling me, that caesar salad could mean hairy salad

There’s been a typo in the title for the last 3 years and no one noticed?

The name Postumus meant, after death. It was given to those whose father would have died before the child was born.

A trend you may be noticing lately is a shift to stand alone videos. I am in the process of experimenting with this new format as it will allow me to cover more topics and do so at a quicker pace. This video in particular was a proof of concept for doing non-military content. I am particularly curious about whether or not people find these topics interesting and the presentation style entertaining. Let me know what you think

so technically a woman could be Called Quinta Quinta

"Caesar means hairy" So you're telling that all these royal titles that descended from Caesar (e.g. Kaiser, Tsar) mean "hairy"? All this time I thought it was just a title that meant "ruler"

wow, i didn't know HOT roman baby names were.

You should contact history teachers if you can. I think your videos are a great way to teach children in a way they can easily understand and have fun with. Specially the battles. I know if I were a history teacher I would love to show your content to my students. Specially when they are seeing big ass videogame battles, they would problably be much more engaged.

All this time, the great kings of Europe have been calling themselves hairy???

Oooh, so that's where the word "nomenclature" derived from

This one thing bothers me- there was no Brutii gens. The gens for the historical Brutus was Iunii. His name was Gaius Iunius Brutus.

"Hot! They did it!"

Fun fact: Nomina is still used in Spanish quite often to say "Salary", besides "Salario" itself wich comes from the pay in salt that romans used to do.

The quality of your work is amazing.

I am so glad you've added the Roman terms on your video instead of just stating them. As English is my second language I watch informative videos such as these with subtitles on, and these subtitles unfortunately are often auto-generated. Your method saves me a lot of time.

So...a person could write his name like Sex. Sans Cummnus?

These videos are excellent, they add extra detail and important context to your other videos on Rome. Please keep doing these videos, they truly make the viewing experience more rewarding and more compelling!

It's a nice twist to all the military video's you post. I really enjoyed this, because this way we learn more about how the romans lived and thinked. Hope you can make more off these video's :)

In Chine our personal names are broken into Clan character Generational character Personal character Then we have stylized names or usernames Then our posthumous or temple names.

You're doing a great job making these historical videos ! This is maybe why we have a forename a family name and occasionally a surname

LOVE this type of videos. I always wondered about the system of naming in Rome, especially when comparing characters in Rome II and Attila. This video offered me a great insight. Thx Oakley

Hi Oakley - currently studying Ancient History at Swansea University and use your channel as a great inspiration - keep up the good work!

Awesome, keep doing these videos, they are very interesting! :)

When you studied latin in school and you know he is not reading the name right...🤪

Thanks for clearing this, keep the history videos coming :D

This is very nice a nice break from the battles to see some information about this you should do more of this

I only came here to say that is one of the worst typos to have with that image.

Top notch stuff. Loving these.

Wow, this actually would make good help to my Total War related stories im hoping to make. thanks Oakley. keep up the amazing work in war and documentary :)

So I am actually taking a Latin Class at my school, this is my second year in it, and we have Roman Personas and all of that stuff, including a Three Part Name. MIHI NOMEN EST NERO CLAVDIVS SENATOR. We have Gens Affiliations and all that, including ways to kill of each other's characters. This was a great video that I even recommended to my Latin Teacher because it might help introduce the First Years better. Ancient Rome's Culture is extremely fascinating if you ignore the stereotypes often ascribed to it.

Oh, like Marcus Didius Falco! But the naming of females is shocking. I didn't know that.

Even if I'm not too interested about this argument, I really really liked this video. It's as long as it should be and very clear. Keep it up

Hey Oakley, what made you so interested in Roman society? (I believe you went to school for Mechanical Engineering?) I'm a History Major here at Rutgers Univ. and I absolutely love the format of your videos. I've read quite a bit by Adrian Goldsworthy and like how you include these prestigious authors rather than wikipedia information. Also, do you add people on Steam? I play Total War quite a bit and would love to 1v1 you sometime. I'm probably not as seasoned as a commander as you but I understand basic tactics (At least Roman). I'm really excited to hear about Late Antiquity Legions. There isn't much information on them, which is a shame because I think the latter armies of Rome have a bad reputation. I don't believe it was the ineffectiveness of the Army that lead to the demise of the Empire but rather the dated (And corrupt) social and economic policies of the elite coupled with ineffective Emperors. I mean, Majorian pretty much took back the Western Roman Empire but was killed because his reform policies pissed off the Senate. The Theme system would be another subject to cover, or maybe the "Renovatio Imperii." Just some suggestions, keep up the good work!

Keep making these !! Love it!!

I find this piece of information quite interesting since my family maintains this kind of tradition (I was named Miguel after my grandfather Miguel, and my father was named Fernando after his, but if you go far enough in my family tree originally all firstborn were named Miguel until my great great granduncle died without heirs and his brother, my great great grandfather, begun to alternate the names). I'm the eighth person on my lineage with my name as far as I can reach haha. Now doesn't seems so improbable for the tradition to have had begun in Roman times!

I think this was the best. I like how simple the presentation was but yet pleasing to the eye :) and i don't have any problem if you do move on to political or social. Still find it entertaining... But try to keep length on then shortened... Cause it can and might be quite boring if it's too long.. But overall this one was very informing... Thanks for the hard work you put on your vids! 👏👏👏👏👏 love you THFE! You may know I'm a great fan!!! :))))

Great video, keep up the hard work and the history videos!

I love this videos, keep it going! Greetings vom germany

I've been taught that "major" and "minor" were also used to differenciate sisters - I don't know if it's true now ! (what about twin sisters ?)

These are really good! Camera, Information, presentation! Keep it up!

About 4 years late, but I'm curious about female names in Rome. For instance, Caligula's sisters were indeed all named Iulia, but all had 'secondary' names (Drusilla, Agrippina Minor & Livilla). So were the names Iulia nomen, and Drusilla etc. praenomen? Or were they praenomen, and Drusilla etc cognomen? Or something else entirely?

Great historic documentries. Will you make one about the roman virtues? How and what meant to be a proper roman (let's say in the late republic), Codes of conduct and religious connotation?

Am I hearing music from "Gladiator" in the beginning? Only a few seconds, but I'm pretty sure

I really like your historic video's, the presentation is really good as well, keep it up :D

Sertor Caeso Nonus & Opiter are my favorite first names I saw you depicted.

I love reading roman exploits, there are so many scipios all related to THE scipio

You should do a video on how the governments of the roman republic and empire works.

an ammazing video and pretty interesting . i know that it took you a lot of time to make it and i love the result. keep up the good work!!!!

With these naming rules, the Biggus Dickus family would last for eternity.

I study Roman History and finally I watches a good video about the names of the Romans

Anyone else notice he misspelled how in the video title

Great job once again! Continue making these please! :)

Love these historical vids, great job!

Imagine living with your family and having 80% of all women in the house have the same name...... Roman names are lame

Good one Oakley I like this videos that you talk about my culture :)

Love these videos man, keep up the awesome work

I love that video thumbnail!! So cute

Very nice! Do more of these!

Love these vid's, hope to see more of them soon!

Interesting video, thanks for posting!

My name directly translated to this scheme would be Ioannes Aciei Patricius I guess, which sounds pretty ok. Just using my middle name as the cognomen obviously. I don't know if the genitive case actually functions as a patronym though. Just going off my limited familiarity with romance languages.

excellent video!!! Please keep up.

People say you can't learn anything from sitting at the computer... Great video btw, can't what to know more

Really informative, thanks.

DO THE "CERSUS HONORUM" SOMETIME! I think I may have misspelled that but you get the idea!

Thanks. This was very informative i am going to use it for my roma.

Interesting stuff!

The funniest thing is when someone already stacked with extra names gets adopted by another family with extra names and you get people like Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Cornelianus Scipio Nasica.

great vid keep it up

I agree that plebeans could have cognomina - there is Quintus Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus and his sons, for example, of the gens Caecilia -, but Cicero was not a plebean. He was from the equites and therefore, if not patrician, was still an aristocrat. Great video!

love your channel

Really loved the video :)

Pretty nice, is there any battles coming out soon?

Really like this stuff keep it up

Just saying, when an extra cognomen is added to a name, it's called the agnomen. Not only are they added for heroic exploits, i.e. Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, Africanus being the agnomen for his victories in Africa, they are also used after adoption, i.e. Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus, Aemilianus being his nomen before he was adopted, to distinguish to people.Other than that, great video! Was kind of surprised to see this on this channel, as I was hoping for more military stuff. Keep it going!-Source; Latin Student

Great video!

More of this please

Can you put in the description the words you said because i'm watching this for my class assignment and the captions are behind a bit so can you please but the words you said in the description?.

the title is reference to how Romans made babies and what the video maker thinks about it... hot! They did it!

Hey, I saw the songs you listed and I really love the "Beneath the Sun" one. However, I'm having trouble finding it. Could you mention where you found it or where the group's website is or something? Appreciate it!

Moar! keep checking back to see no updates D:

Imagine being a roman and trying to name your kid then the dude in the registry office said "Sorry that name is taken, have you tried: xx1Gauis Julius Caesar1xx?

Love the series!

i have always wondered witch of the names of cesar was the one his friends called him by. good video.

Caesar could also be from “Caedo” meaning to cut rather than from “Caesaries” or hairy. After all, it’s not called a C-section birth because the mother is hairy.

The romans were so fucking cool.

Women's names were not a reflection of "unbalanced gender roles". They were a reflection of marriage customs and what was necessary. A woman wouldn't have needed as many names as a man would, because she would generally be the only person using her nomen in the household. Women did not take their husband's name when they married, and so would generally be the only person with her name in a household. If, for instance, a Julian man married a Claudian woman, everyone else in the household would be a Julius or Julia, and would need additional names to distinguish them from one another. The Claudian woman, however, would be Claudia - which would be distinct in her household. Additional names would be superfluous. Also, your pronunciation is awful. The "ii" in a name like Claudii is pronounced "E-E". G is always pronounced hard, never soft. Same with C. V is pronounced like W and J didn't exist until much later. Instead, I was used, and was pronounced soft.

Octavius was a Nomen and Cognomen for a period of time. it was never really used as a praenomen For example augustus was first Gaius Julius Octavius what later on changed to Gaius Octavius Caesar when he was adopted by julius caesar. (Yes this is a bit complicated to just explain)

Great vid

Do one for Aztecs plz

Brilliant!!

i liked this and will be sure to check out your other videos. However, the Latin / Italiate mispronunciations robbed many of these names of their beauty.

I'm confused. If a person with cognomen received a "cognomen ex virtute", would that person have two cognomina or both names would be considered as one cognomen. Also, could the second (or the second part of the) cognomen be inherited by his children?

“Yeah, I’ll have a hairy salad please.”

the tria nomena existed for a long time after the Roman empire though, especially through the dark ages. now a-days we pretty much are content with Duo Nomena.

Fun Fact: In romanian personal name is 'prenume' and the family name is 'nume'.

Basicly we can attribute our system of names to the Romans. There are differences. In Scandinavia the surname was derived from the father's given name by appending -son or -sen to the name. Often there was another name from the region. Bergen is a region name associated with Bergen, Norway. In most regions of the United States Bergen is an uncommon name. The exception is New Jersey where Bergen is a common name.

can you maybe make a video about hadrian's wall

Figuring out what my Roman name would be is so difficult. My first name is Jack but I don't know of any Latin form of it. The closest I can think of is "Iohannes" a Latin form of John since Jack is sometimes a shortened form of John (though not in my case). Then there's the fact that I'm Scottish and have a Scottish surname which would be hard to turn into a Nomen.

could you do videos explaining other factions instead of just Romans?