Cornelia (gens) - Praenomina Used By The Gens

Praenomina Used By The Gens

The Cornelii employed a wide variety of praenomina, although individual families tended to favor certain names and avoid others. Servius, Lucius, Publius, Gnaeus, and Marcus were common to most branches. Aulus was used by the Cornelii Cossi. Gaius was used by both the Cornelii Cethegi and Lentuli. The praenomen Tiberius also appears once amongst the Lentuli, who later revived the former cognomen Cossus as a praenomen.

In the 1st century BC, the dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla named his twin children Faustus and Fausta, reviving an old praenomen that was regularly used by his descendants over the next two centuries, and making the Cornelii the only patrician family known to have used that name. Sulla's youngest daughter is believed to have been named Postuma, although no other instances of this name amongst the Cornelii are known.