Praenomen

The praenomen (plural praenomina) was the ancient Roman given name. With a nomen and a cognomen it formed a complete Roman name during the days of the Republic and early Empire. By the 2nd century, praenomina were no longer commonly used.

There were relatively few praenomina in common use. They are listed in the following table. In Roman documents the praenomen was often abbreviated to one or two letters, also shown below.

Praenomen	Abbrev.	Notes
Amulius
Appius	Ap.	used by gens Claudia
Camillus		used by gentes Furia and Arruntia
Decius	D.	used by gens Minatia
Decimus	D.	"tenth"
Drusus
Flavius
Gaius or Caius	C.
Gnaeus or Cnaeus	Cn.
Lucius	L.
Marcus	M.
Postumus
Publius	P.
Quintus	Q. or Qu.	"fifth"
Secundus		"second"
Septimus	Sept.	"seventh"
Sextus	Sex.	"sixth"
Spurius	Sp.	"sixth"
Tertius		"third"
Tiberius	Ti.
Titus	T.