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An agnomen (plural: agnomina), in the Roman naming convention, is a nickname
Nickname

A nickname is a descriptive name given in place of or in addition to the official name of a person, place or thing. Another class of nickname is the familiar or truncated form of the proper name, such as Bob, Bobby, Rob, Robbie, and Bert for Robert, more properly called a short name....
, much like how cognomen
Cognomen

The cognomen was originally a middle name of a citizen of Ancient Rome, under Roman naming conventions. The cognomen started as a nickname, but lost that purpose when it became hereditary ....
 was initially. However, the cognomina eventually became family names, so agnomina was needed to distinguish between similarly-named persons. However, as the agnomen was an additional and optional component in a Roman name, not all Romans had an agnomen (at least not recorded).

Pseudo-Probus uses the hero of the Punic Wars, Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, as an example:

Marius Victorinus further elucidates:

Africanus, Creticus and the likes are also known as victory titles.






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An agnomen (plural: agnomina), in the Roman naming convention, is a nickname
Nickname

A nickname is a descriptive name given in place of or in addition to the official name of a person, place or thing. Another class of nickname is the familiar or truncated form of the proper name, such as Bob, Bobby, Rob, Robbie, and Bert for Robert, more properly called a short name....
, much like how cognomen
Cognomen

The cognomen was originally a middle name of a citizen of Ancient Rome, under Roman naming conventions. The cognomen started as a nickname, but lost that purpose when it became hereditary ....
 was initially. However, the cognomina eventually became family names, so agnomina was needed to distinguish between similarly-named persons. However, as the agnomen was an additional and optional component in a Roman name, not all Romans had an agnomen (at least not recorded).

Pseudo-Probus uses the hero of the Punic Wars, Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, as an example:

Marius Victorinus further elucidates:

Africanus, Creticus and the likes are also known as victory titles. For example, Coriolanus
Coriolanus

Gaius Marcius Coriolanus was a possibly legendary ancient Rome general who lived in the 5th century BC. He received his toponymy title "Coriolanus" because of his exceptional valor in a Roman siege of the Volscian city of Corioli....
 earned his from the capture of Corioli
Corioli

Corioli, an ancient Volsci city in Latium adiectum, taken, according to the Ancient Romans annals in 493 BC, with Longula and Polusca, and retaken for the Volsci by Gaius Marcius Coriolanus, its original conqueror, who, in disgust at his treatment by his countrymen, had deserted to the enemy....
.

As a minimum, a Roman agnomen is a name attached to an individual's full titulature after birth and formal naming by the family. True Roman nicknames, fully replacing the individual's name in usage, are rare. An example is Caligula
Caligula

Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus , more commonly known by his nickname Caligula , was the third Roman Emperor, reigning from 16 March 37 until his assassination on 24 January 41....
, which was used in place of, and not along with, his full name, which was Gaius Iulius Caesar Augustus Germanicus. Caligula's praenomen was Gaius, his nomen Iulius, his cognomen Caesar. Some agnomina were inherited like the cognomen, thus establishing a sub-family.

An agnomen is not a pseudonym
Pseudonym

A pseudonym, , is a fictitious alternative to a person's legal name. In some cases, pseudonyms are adopted because it is part of a cultural or organizational tradition, as in the case of Religious names used by members of some religious orders and "cadre names" used by Communist party leaders such as Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin....
, but a real name; agnomina are additions to, not substitutions for, an individual's full name. Parallel examples of agnomina from later times are epithets like Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson
Stonewall Jackson

Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson was a Confederate States Army general during the American Civil War, and probably the most well-known Confederate commander after General Robert E....
 (though he is known more often by his agnomen than his first name) or popular nicknames like "Iron" Mike Tyson
Mike Tyson

Michael Gerard "Mike" Tyson, also known as Malik Abdul, is a retired United States Boxing. He was the List of undisputed boxing champions#Heavyweight and remains the youngest man ever to win a world heavyweight title at just 20 years old....
.

See also

  • List of Imperial Roman victory titles
    List of Imperial Roman victory titles

    This document is a list of victory titles assumed by Roman Emperors, not including assumption of the title Imperator ; note that the Roman Emperors were not the only persons to assume victory titles ....