Latin Name Generator

A Latinized name is a vernacular name recast in Latin form, usually by adding a Latin ending (Johannes for John, Carolus for Charles), translating its meaning (Mercator for Kremer, meaning merchant) or both. Scholars, clergy and printers used them from the Middle Ages through the 1700s so their work could be read across Europe, which is why Linnaeus and Copernicus are known by Latin names.

A citizen man had three names: a personal praenomen, a hereditary gens name ending in -ius, and a cognomen marking the family branch. Gaius Julius Caesar is Gaius of the gens Julia, of the Caesar branch. Freedmen took their patron's praenomen and gens name and kept their old name as a cognomen. Women normally carried only the feminine gens name, sometimes with a distinguishing second name.

Yes. Many everyday names are Latin in origin or still Latin in form: Felix, Victor, Clement, Vincent, Julia, Beatrix, Laetitia, Amanda, Marcus and Julius are all used across Europe and the Americas, and Latin forms such as Julianus or Constantia survive in several languages. The virtue names in this list are a good source for babies or characters who need a classical but familiar name.

In classical pronunciation every letter sounds, C is always hard as in cat (so Cicero is KEE-ke-ro), V is pronounced like W, and AE sounds like the English word eye. Ecclesiastical (church) pronunciation softens C before E and I to a CH sound and V to V, which is what you hear in choral music. Either is acceptable as long as you are consistent.