Lucius (ˈluːʃi.əs or ˈluːki.əs) is a Latin praenomen

Praenomen

The praenomen was a personal name chosen by the parents of a Roman child. It was first bestowed on the dies lustricus , the eighth day after the birth of a girl, or the ninth day after the birth of a boy...

, or personal name

Given name

A given name, in Western contexts often referred to as a first name, is a personal name that specifies and differentiates between members of a group of individuals, especially in a family, all of whose members usually share the same family name...

, which was one of the most common names throughout Roman history. The feminine form is Lucia (ˈluːʃi.ə, luːˈtʃiː.ə or ˈluːki.ə). The praenomen was used by both patrician and plebeian families, and gave rise to the patronymic gentes Lucia and Lucilia, as well as the cognomen

Cognomen

The cognomen nōmen "name") was the third 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. Hereditary cognomina were used to augment the second name in order to identify a particular branch within...

Lucullus. It was regularly abbreviated L.

Throughout Roman history, Lucius was the most common praenomen, used slightly more than Gaius and somewhat more than Marcus. Although a number of prominent families rarely or never used it, it was amongst the most frequently given names in countless others. The name survived the collapse of the Western Empire

Western Roman Empire

The Western Roman Empire was the western half of the Roman Empire after its division by Diocletian in 285; the other half of the Roman Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire, commonly referred to today as the Byzantine Empire....

in the 5th century, and has continued into modern times.

Origin and Meaning of the Name

In De Praenominibus (Concerning Praenomina), Julius Paris asserts that Lucius is derived from lux, light, and that the name was originally given to children who were born at dawn. This meaning alone would not be enough to account for the frequency with which the name was used, but as with all praenomina, parents were free to choose the name which most appealed to them, and once a praenomen became regularly used in any family, it tended to be passed down from one generation to the next, by the strength of tradition.

Chase connects the name with the archaic adjective loucus, which meant bright or shining, although by the classical period it had come to refer to a cleared grove. He points out the Greek cognate, leukos, from which the personal name Lucas or Luke is derived.

The Etruscan form of this praenomen is Lucie.