Lucius ( , ) is a Latin ''

praenomen The ''praenomen'' (; plural: ''praenomina'') was a personal name chosen by the parents of a Roman child. It was first bestowed on the ''dies lustricus'' (day of lustration), the eighth day after the birth of a girl, or the ninth day after the bi ...

'', or

personal name A personal name, or full name, in onomastic terminology also known as prosoponym (from Ancient Greek πρόσωπον / ''prósōpon'' - person, and ὄνομα / ''onoma'' - name), is the set of names by which an individual person is known ...

, which was one of the most common names throughout Roman history. The feminine form is ''Lucia'' ( , ). 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 A ''cognomen'' (; plural ''cognomina''; from ''con-'' "together with" and ''(g)nomen'' "name") was the third name of a citizen of ancient Rome, under Roman naming conventions. Initially, it was a nickname, but lost that purpose when it became here ...

'' ''

Lucullus Lucius Licinius Lucullus (; 118–57/56 BC) was a Roman general and statesman, closely connected with Lucius Cornelius Sulla. In culmination of over 20 years of almost continuous military and government service, he conquered the eastern kingd ...

''. It was regularly abbreviated L.''Dictionary of Greek & Roman Biography & Mythology'' 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 The Western Roman Empire comprised the western provinces of the Roman Empire at any time during which they were administered by a separate independent Imperial court; in particular, this term is used in historiography to describe the period fr ...

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

Origin and meaning

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 , 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''.

Jacques Heurgon Jacques Heurgon (25 January 1903 – 27 October 1995) was a French university, normalian, Etruscan scholar and Latinist, professor of Latin language and literature at the Sorbonne. Married to Anne Heurgon-Desjardins, founder in 1952, of the Ce ...

, ''Daily Life of the Etruscans'' (1964)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lucius (Praenomen) Ancient Roman praenomina