[antir-heralds] Name Check: Lucia Magnus

[Ursula Whitcher]

> I have a client who wishes to use the name Lucia Magnus.  My client wishes
> to be 450A.D. Roman.  I have found references for Lucius on the Academy of
> St. Gabriel and the feminine form for Lucia, but I haven't been able to find
> any date references for the name.  Magnus is to be her cognomen or last
> name.  I haven't been able to find any references for this name.

For a feminine name, she'd want the feminine form of the cognomen: <Lucia 
Magna>.

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 2842 ( http://www.s-gabriel.org/2842
  ) says:

In the early Roman Empire, most citizens used a tria nomina or triple 
name,
which consisted of a praenomen (given name), nomen (gens or clan name), 
and
cognomen (originally a personal nickname, but later inherited within a
branch of a gens).  By the third century, this style of naming had fallen
out of fashion.  The praenomen disappeared from use, and two-element names
became the norm.  By the fourth century, 90% of men and women in the 
Empire
were identified by a single name (derived from a cognomen); by the fifth
century that number had risen to 95%.  The remainder used a nomen plus
cognomen, or, in a few cases, a single name plus a patronymic byname.

Your client does need a two-element name for the purposes of registration; 
however, you should probably let her know that unless she was a member of 
the highest aristocracy, she would probably have used just one name.

The report cited above discusses <Lucius> and <Lucianus> in Roman Britain, 
though it doesn't give exact dates.  Both <Lucius> and <Magnus> are found 
in Maredudd's article on Roman names on the Laurel website:

http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/roman/

That's enough to establish the elements as reasonable in our period.  This 
article is not a reliable guide to name structure, especially for a very 
late imperial name like the one your client wants (and it 
consistently fails to use either English or Latin plurals for terms such 
as nomen or cognomen), but since it's on the Laurel website, you don't 
need to make photocopies.

Ursula Georges.