In the early ages of the world a single name sufficed for each person. It was generally descriptive of some quality he had, or which his parents hoped he might in future have. In the course of time, to distinguish a man from others bearing the same appellative, a second name became necessary. The earliest approach to the modern system of nomenclature, was the addition of the name of a man’s son to his own name; as Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, or Joshua, the son of Nun,--a practice which survives in our own day in such names as Adamson and Fitzherbert. The Romans, to mark the different _gentes_ and _familiæ_, and to distinguish individuals of the same race, had three names,--the _Prænomen_, the _Nomen_, and the _Cognomen_. The first denoted the individual; the second was the generic name, or term of clanship; and the third indicated the family. Military commanders, and other persons of the highest eminence, sometimes were honored with a fourth name, or _Agnomen_; as Coriolanus, Africanus, Germanicus, borrowed from the name of a hostile country, which had been the scene of their exploits. A person was usually addressed only by his prænomen, which, Horace tells us, “delicate ears loved”:
Archdeacon Hare has well observed that by means of their names political principles, political duties, political affections were impressed on the minds of the Romans from their birth. Every member of a great house had a determinate course marked out for him, the path in which his forefathers had trod; his name admonished him of what he owed to his country. “_Rien_,” says Desbrosses, “_n’a contribué davantage à la grandeur de la république que cette methode de succession nominale, qui, incorporant, pour ainsi dire, à la gloire de l’état, la gloire des noms héréditaires, joignit le patriotisme de race au patriotisme national_.”
After the conversion of Europe to Christianity, the old Pagan names were commonly discarded, and Scriptural names, or names derived from church history, took their place. About the close of the tenth century, distinctive appellations, describing physical and moral qualities, habits, professions, etc., were added for the purpose of identification; but as these sobriquets were imposed upon many who bore the same baptismal names, an entire change in the system of names became necessary, and hereditary surnames were adopted. These, it is said, were at first written, “not in a direct line after the Christian name, but above it, between the lines,” and thus were literally _supra nomina_, or “surnames.”