Ask the Chatbot Games & Quizzes History & Society Science & Tech Biographies Animals & Nature Geography & Travel Arts & Culture ProCon Money Videos
cognomen
References
Britannica AI Icon

cognomen

name
Written by
The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

The Information Architects maintain a master list of the topics included in the corpus of  Encyclopædia Britannica, and create and manage the relationships between them.
The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Last updated

Quick Summary

A cognomen is a name, often a nickname or epithet, given to an individual in addition to or instead of their given name. In ancient Rome, it was the third part of a name, following the praenomen (given name) and nomen (family name), and often served as a hereditary surname. For example, "Cicero" was the cognomen of Marcus Tullius Cicero. The term can also refer to any word or phrase by which a person or thing is regularly known.123

Summary created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
4 Britannica Sources
  1. cognomen
  2. cognomens
  3. cognomen
  4. name - European patterns of naming

Ask Britannica AI about this topic

Britannica doesn't have a full article on this topic, so we've curated a list of our relevant coverage.