Roman naming conventions
Over the course of some fourteen centuries, the Romans and other peoples of Italy employed a system of different personal, sub-tribe, tribe, and clan or family names (not necessarily all of the above, and not necessarily in that order) which were different from the personal, tribal, and place-names used by most other cultures surrounding the Mediterranean Sea and areas north, consisting of a combination of personal and family names. Although conventionally referred to as the tria nomina, the combination of praenomen, nomen, and cognomen that have come to be regarded as the basic elements of the classical Roman name-form in fact represent a continuous process of development, from at least the 7th century BC – 7th century AD. The names that developed as part of this system became a defining characteristic of Roman civilization, and although the system itself vanished during the Early Middle Ages, the names themselves had a profound influence on the development of European naming practices, and many continue to survive in modern languages.