Since the Greeks were more inclined to adopt everything new, it is not surprising that many of the first Christian congregations were formed on their lands. Christian communities grew and flourished in cities such as Patras, Corinth, Thessaloniki, Philippi, and Athens. The tradition of Christian naming led to a decline of ‘tria nomina’ first in these parts and then across the whole empire (Kantola & Nuorluoto, 2022). Initially, ‘tria nomina’ consisted of praenomen, nomen, and cognomen (Figure 1). However, later Roman names were shortened and used alongside Greek names.
For a number of reasons, the Roman naming system collapsed some time after the collapse of imperial power in the West. The praenomen had already become insufficient in written sources in the fourth century, and by the fifth century, it was preserved only by the most conservative parts of the old Roman aristocracy (Kantola & Nuorluoto, 2022). As Roman institutions and social structures gradually disappeared during the sixth century, the need to distinguish between nomens and cognomens also disappeared. The Greek naming system, vice versa, spread across the country. By the end of the seventh century, the population of Western Europe had completely returned to individual names. But many of the names that originated within the ‘trial nomina’ have been adapted to use and have survived to the present.
Thus, it can be concluded that the Greek naming system, initially used only for slaves and servants, triumphed over a more prestigious Roman equivalent. On the one hand, the reasons for it were changing the social structure of the society, where social strata gradually became less pronounced, and, on the other, the emergence of Christian ideas within Greece. Moreover, the natural tendency for shortening played a significant part in this process, making the Greek naming system preferable to the Roman one.
References
Breytenbach, C. (2018). Tria nomina. Relational identity and Roman name-giving among Lycaonian Christians. In C. Breytenbach & J. M. Ogereau (Eds.), Authority and identity in emerging Christianities in Asia Minor and Greece (pp. 144-167). Brill. Web.
Kantola U., Nuorluoto T. (2022). Names and identities of Greek elites with Roman citizenship. In C. Krötzl, K. Mustakallio & M. Tamminen (Eds.), Negotiation, collaboration and conflict in ancient and medieval communities (pp. 20-26). Routledge.