Vopiscus is a Latin , 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 kno ...

, which was occasionally used during the period of the

Roman Republic The Roman Republic ( la, Res publica Romana ) was a form of government of Rome and the era of the classical Roman civilization when it was run through public representation of the Roman people. Beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Ki ...

, and later as a ''

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 ...

'', surviving into imperial times. The feminine form is ''Vopisca''. The name was not usually abbreviated, but is sometimes found with the abbreviation Vop. The praenomen Vopiscus was always rare, but it was familiar to the scholar

Marcus Terentius Varro Marcus Terentius Varro (; 116–27 BC) was a Roman polymath and a prolific author. He is regarded as ancient Rome's greatest scholar, and was described by Petrarch as "the third great light of Rome" (after Vergil and Cicero). He is sometimes calle ...

, who described it as an antique name, no longer in general use by the 1st century BC. The only family known to have used it was ''

gens Julia The gens Julia (''gēns Iūlia'', ) was one of the most prominent patrician families in ancient Rome. Members of the gens attained the highest dignities of the state in the earliest times of the Republic. The first of the family to obtain t ...

'', but as with other uncommon praenomina, it may have been more common amongst the plebeians and in the countryside. The name was later used as a cognomen, becoming more frequent in imperial times. Vopiscus may once have been a praenomen in families that later used it as a cognomen, such as the

Flavii The gens Flavia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. Its members are first mentioned during the last three centuries of the Republic. The first of the Flavii to achieve prominence was Marcus Flavius, tribune of the plebs in 327 and 323 BC; h ...

and the

Pompeii Pompeii (, ) was an ancient city located in what is now the ''comune'' of Pompei near Naples in the Campania region of Italy. Pompeii, along with Herculaneum and many villas in the surrounding area (e.g. at Boscoreale, Stabiae), was burie ...

Origin and meaning of the name

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ' ...

, whose opinion was followed by a number of later authorities, related the popular etymology of the name, explaining that Vopiscus was originally given to a child whose twin brother or sister was born dead. This extremely unlikely explanation for the name is rejected by Chase as an example of

false etymology A false etymology (fake etymology, popular etymology, etymythology, pseudo-etymology, or par(a)etymology) is a popular but false belief about the origin or derivation of a specific word. It is sometimes called a folk etymology, but this is also a ...

. However, the true meaning of the name remains unclear.George Davis Chase, "The Origin of Roman Praenomina", in ''Harvard Studies in Classical Philology'', vol. VIII (1897)

Notes

{{Praenomina Ancient Roman praenomina Stillbirth Twin