Roman Name Generator

About Roman names

Roman names from the Republic (509-27 BCE) and early Empire (27 BCE-200 CE) followed the tria nomina convention — three names per citizen: praenomen (personal), nomen (family / clan), and cognomen (branch / nickname). Famous example: Gaius Julius Caesar — Gaius is the praenomen, Julius is the nomen (gens Julia), Caesar is the cognomen (his family branch).

For women, the system was different — they typically took the feminine form of their father’s nomen. The daughter of Julius would be Julia; the daughter of Cornelius would be Cornelia; sisters were distinguished by Maior (elder) / Minor (younger) or numerical suffixes.

This generator focuses on first name + optional cognomen, which is the most common Roman-feeling output for fiction.

How this generator works

Names come from the Character Name Generator with genre = roman locked:

• Male first names (~30 entries): Marcus, Lucius, Gaius, Quintus, Titus, Aurelius, Cassius, Claudius, Decimus, Octavius, Brutus, Cicero, Cornelius, Crispus, Fabius, Felix, Flavius, Hadrian, Horatius, Julius, Marius, Maximus, Nero, Numerius, Plinius, Remus, Romulus, Seneca, Servius, Sextus
• Female first names (~30 entries): Aurelia, Camilla, Claudia, Cornelia, Domitia, Drusilla, Faustina, Flavia, Fulvia, Helena, Julia, Junia, Lavinia, Livia, Lucia, Marcia, Maria, Octavia, Pompeia, Portia, Rufina, Sabina, Servilia, Sulpicia, Tullia, Valeria, Vesta, Vibia, Vipsania, Antonia
• Cognomens (added to ~50% of names): Sextus, Maximus, Aurelius — for the third-name flavor

Output produces Marcus, Aurelius Maximus, Lavinia Julia, Octavius Sextus. Drop the cognomen for less formal naming.

Use cases

Historical fiction writers for stories set in Rome, the Republic, the Empire, or any Roman-conquered territory (Britain, Gaul, North Africa). The pool is broadly period-accurate for ~300 BCE-300 CE.

Fantasy authors with Roman-influenced settings. I, Claudius (Robert Graves), Memoirs of Hadrian (Yourcenar), Rome: Total War video games, Spartacus TV series — these all use historically grounded Roman names.

D&D / Pathfinder campaigns with classical antiquity flavor. Forgotten Realms’ Calimshan and Mulhorand borrow Roman/Greek/Egyptian names. Pathfinder’s Cheliax and Taldor lean Roman.

Roleplay / persona for SCA, Renaissance Faires (yes, despite the name), Roman reenactor groups.

Tips for picking

Skip the cognomen for slaves and lower classes. Roman cognomens were aristocratic / military distinction. Common folk often had just praenomen + nomen (or just one name).

Match gender properly. Roman women took feminine forms of family names. If your female character is in the gens Julia, her name is Julia, not Julius. The generator handles this — female names auto-end in -a.

Numerical suffixes for siblings. Romans often named children sequentially: Quintus (fifth-born), Sextus (sixth-born), Septimus (seventh-born), Octavius (eighth-born), Decimus (tenth-born). This works as a Roman naming Easter egg.

Don’t mix with Greek names. Roman and Greek names overlap in fiction but were distinct in practice. Claudius is Roman; Cleisthenes is Greek. Pick one tradition.

Related tools

For medieval European (later period), use Medieval Name Generator. For Viking / Norse (parallel non-Roman tradition), use Viking Name Generator. For modern Italian (descendants of Roman naming), use Italian Name Generator. For broader fantasy drawing on Roman, the Fantasy Name Generator.

Last updated: May 24, 2026