Imperial Naming Customs: The "Tria Nomina"

[NB: for information on the differences between Colovia and Nibenaea, this post is a good place to start on the Colovian side of things.]

 

Preface

Greetings reader! My name is Makes Great-Shadows, secondary advisor of economics for Our Divine Emperor, Optimus Mede, here again with another piece for your enjoyment! Today I will be writing about the nomenclature of the olive-skinned inhabitants of the temperate valleys of Colovia and the lush forests of the Niben, otherwise known as Imperials. Of course, the famous tria nomina system will vary slightly from region to region, so I try to account for all of those differences, but no doubt there are some who willingly go against the traditional trend for names, so not everything will be covered here. We start with the basic unit of any naming structure:

The Praenomen

This is the given name of any Imperial child, usually bestowed to them on the dies lustricus (“day of purification”), which is the eighth or ninth day after the child’s birth. This is done a few days after birth because of the high danger of infant mortality, meaning a parent will not feel that they “wasted” a name on a child that unfortunately perished too soon. During the dies, the baby is washed by holy water in a religious institution (anything ranging from a Skyrim monastery to the Temple of Divines at the Imperial City, as long as there is godly energy radiating from within), and the clergymen present delivers the appropriate rites.

Because all Imperials, from Colovians to Heartlanders to Nibenaean tribals, all tend to use the same pool of 25 or so names, and the trend for boys to be named after their fathers and grandfathers, praenomini are repeated incredibly often, and it is not at all uncommon to have entire workforces or school classes to consist entirely of Bruti and Pelagii (the plurals of Brutus and Pelagius). If a boy isn’t named after his great-grandfather, however, his praenomen will usually have to do with the circumstances surrounding his birth. If a boy was born in the seventh month, Sun’s Height, his praenomen could be Septimus (“seven”), Solus (“sun”), or Scolasticus (“scholar, apprentice,” for that month’s birthsign, The Apprentice). Or the family could just be lazy and he could be the fourth Gaius. Most poorer Colovians/Heartlanders tend to choose the latter option, not caring much about the insignificant praenomen and believing very strongly in family succession and patriarchy. Having a line of four men with the same name is seen as honorable and prestigious, and a sign of the strength of the family. Nibanaeans, however, believe each part of a name to be precious, so parents always try to give each child a unique name, creating far greater diversity of names in the Blackwoods than in Skingrad or Chorrol.

All the above applies to boys’ names only, as girls very often don’t even get a praenomen. In Colovia, girls are seen as a part of the family, while boys are the leaders of the family. Because the boys are leaders, they require a praenomen, but all the women need is to be identified by their family name, or the nomen (more on this in the next section). And as to be expected, Nibenaeans have the opposite view of the Colovians. Because of their intense love for strong women like St. Alessia, those of the Niben make sure every woman has their own name, as every person is one of their own, not property to their fathers (in fact, Alessia is a very popular woman’s name in both the Blackwoods and the Valley!).

The Nomen

This is what the average person would call the “last” or “family” name. While the praenomen and cognomen (more on that later) have the option of being passed on, every member of a family always has the nomen until the end of time itself. While the praenomini generally stay the same structure in the differing regions of Cyrodiil, the nomini differ wildly depending on if one is in the West or the South . In Colovia, the nomini are generally rougher-sounding, more “harsh” and closer to the Nordic language than the Imperial language. Names like Kvinchal, Valkir, and Moslin are the norm from Anvil to Skingrad. But as you move to the Heartland and the Valley, more “pleasant,” traditional-sounding names start to become commonplace. Iulius, Antonius, Catullius, and Horatius are notable examples (notice that all traditional nomen end with “-ius,” while traditional praenomen can have either “-us,” “-ius,” or irregular endings).

These nomini are the normal root of the women’s names. To create a feminine name, one simply has to add the feminine ending, which is “-a.” For the seven mentioned, the daughters of those families would be Kvinchala, Valkira, Moslina, Iulia, Antonia, Cattulia, and Horatia. The Nibenaeans, as I said earlier, go against this trend, preferring to give women names as different from the nomini as possible. Those of the Niben also differ in which parent’s nomini the children will gain. In Colovia/Heartland, the paternal nomen always becomes the child’s nomen. But the Nibenaeans will have two nomen: one from the mother, and one from the father, further reinforcing the equality of genders that the tribals hold as a pillar of their society.

The Cognomen

And finally, we come to the tertius of the tria nomina, the cognomen, usually translated as the nickname. This is the way that individual members of a family define themselves. While the praenomini and nomini tend to be exactly the same going from generation to generation, the cognomini gives each person a way to make themselves unique, using an adjective based on a particular element of their personality or physicality. The cognomini are how Colovian sisters tell themselves apart. Of two daughters of the Iulii family, for instance, one can be Iulia Maxima (older) and one can be Iulia Minor (younger). Sometimes, however, the cognomen is gained through one’s deeds in life, like the great Remus (Reman) Cyrodiil, who gained the cognomen “Cyrodiil” after becoming Emperor.

The cognomen can very literally be anything, from Altus to Stultus to Pilosus and even Sinister (which does not mean what you are thinking). The cognomen can be passed down through generations (like with the Cyrodiil dynasty), but with the Nibenaeans, it is almost never given to offspring, again tying into the obsession for uniqueness that the tribals seem to have.

Perhaps the best outside comparison to a cognomen is the Nordic system of a dual-word last name (Stone-fist, Skull-Cracker, Early-Beard, etc.). The major difference being that the cognomen is one of three naming units, while the Nords really only have two, a first and last name, with the very occasional middle name.

Naming examples

Below are just some examples of names, some random and some famous, to help you gain a better idea of how these ideas are used in real time. Cognomini are italicized, nomini are bolded, and praenomini are left normal.

  • Marcus Iulius Pulcher [very traditional Heartlander name]

  • Sextus Flavius [Heartlander, probably born in the sixth month, Midyear. No cognomen most probably because of youth]

  • Antonia Sinistra [Heartlander, traditional girl’s name]

  • Remus Catullius Cyrodiil [the full name of the great emperor]

  • Gaius Kotlin Altus [traditional Colovian name]

  • Cariolanus Valkir Bretonus [Colovian, probably some Breton ancestry]

  • Uther Notker ExPallido [Colovian, rare example of non-traditional praenomen. Definitely half or quarter-Nordic, as “ex Pallido” means “from the Pale,” a Hold in Skyrim]

  • Bismaka Maxima [Colovian, traditional girl’s name]

  • Titus Mede Imperator [after quelling the Civil War, the ancestor of our current leader was given a very prestigious cognomen]

  • Tiber Talos Septimus [the first Septim emperor’s name is very bizarrely structured, as he changed his name from the Nordic “Hjalti Early-Beard.” Tiber and Talos both mean the same thing, “Stormcrown,” so Septimus ended up becoming the nomen of the royal family to avoid confusion]

  • Kitus Noctius Tullius Argentus [traditional Nibenaean name with two nomini: one maternal, one paternal. The paternal name generally goes first]

  • Alessia Noctius Vallius Aurea [example of the great difference between Colovian and Nibenaean girls’ names. Notice how Kitus and Alessia probably have the same father, but different mothers]

  • Ahlar Domitius alHaris Niger [Nibenaean, half-Redguard, half-Imperial. “Al Haris” means “from Sentinel,” the capital of Hammerfell]

Well, that’s about all I could write about for Imperial naming customs. Hope you enjoyed! Valete!