People don't necessarily have names, not in the sense we would use it. The "name" of Imperator Augustus was Octavianus, which just meant: The Eighth, as he was the eighth child of his parents. In general, Romans didn't have names, they just acquired titles and nicknames during their life.
He was born Gaius Octavius. (He apparently got his cognomen of "Thurinus" somewhat after his birth.) He changed his name to include Octavianus, after his birth family, after Gaius Julius Caesar died and Caesar's will named Gaius his adopted son and heir. At each point, he had a name that was recognized as such, distinct from titles and nicknames.
If you're going to try to be pedantic, get at least the core details right.
Actually, Romans had some name, but it didn't really matter. And it gets even more complicated. There were 18 praenomens in use, as far as we know, but most of them went out of use, and only the three Caius, Lucius and Marcus remained, at least for males. As they didn't really help to distinguish people, they went mostly out of daily use, or were left abbreviated in inscriptions. If people were aristocracy, they also had the name of their gens. Thus Caius Iulius (Caesar) was of the gens of the Iulians. But
Anyone who's ever owned an Italian car knows that this practice of repeatedly duct-taping things up rather than coming up with a proper once-and-for-all fix is still alive and active today.
This has never been more obligatory (Score:2, Funny)
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Anyone who says "people have names" is a wrong assumption can be safely dismissed as a crank.
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He was born Gaius Octavius. (He apparently got his cognomen of "Thurinus" somewhat after his birth.) He changed his name to include Octavianus, after his birth family, after Gaius Julius Caesar died and Caesar's will named Gaius his adopted son and heir. At each point, he had a name that was recognized as such, distinct from titles and nicknames.
If you're going to try to be pedantic, get at least the core details right.
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Re:This has never been more obligatory (Score:2)