Random Roman Name Generator

A Roman citizen's name in the classical period had three parts, the tria nomina. First came the praenomen, a personal name chosen from a tiny pool of about a dozen in common use: Gaius, Lucius, Marcus, Publius, Quintus, Titus, Gnaeus, Aulus, Sextus, Decimus, Tiberius, Spurius, and Manius, usually abbreviated in writing (C., L., M., P.). Second was the nomen, the clan or gens name ending in -ius: Julius, Cornelius, Valerius, Fabius, Claudius, Aemilius. Third was the cognomen, a family branch name that started as a nickname: Rufus (red-haired), Maximus (greatest), Cicero (chickpea), Scaevola (left-handed), Ahenobarbus (bronze-beard). Some men added a fourth honorific, an agnomen, for a great deed: Scipio Africanus, Metellus Numidicus.

Women were named more simply. A daughter received the feminine form of her father's nomen, so Julius Caesar's daughter was Julia and Cicero's was Tullia. Sisters were told apart with Major and Minor or ordinals like Tertia, and by the late Republic many women also carried a feminine cognomen: Livia Drusilla, Cornelia Metella, Vipsania Agrippina.

The list mixes real Romans with random but grammatical combinations, so you can grab a senator, a poet, a centurion, or a matron and be confident the structure holds up.