How to use cognomen in a sentence

11 example sentences · noun

Cognomen means a personal epithet or clan name added to the given name and family name of Ancient Romans. Example: “Julius Caesar's actual name was Gaius Iulius Caesar. Gaius was his praenomen or forename, Iulius his nomen or surname, and Caesar his cognomen, denoting which part of the Iulius family he belonged to.”

Examples of cognomen by meaning

nounA personal epithet or clan name added to the given name and family name of Ancient Romans.

Julius Caesar's actual name was Gaius Iulius Caesar. Gaius was his praenomen or forename, Iulius his nomen or surname, and Caesar his cognomen, denoting which part of the Iulius family he belonged to.
Tullius), and cognomen (e.g.1945, E[lizabeth] G[idley] Withycombe, “Introduction”, in The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon...
Roman tradition suggests that he might also have had the cognomen Octavian to indicate his biological family.2007, David Potter, chapter 1, in The Emperors of Rome, page 36

nounSynonym of surname, a family name.

Well, to the Dragons, it would seem rather a lot, as they've tonight committed their cash to personalised products and to the man with the most famous cognomen in confectionery.2018 December 23, Dragons' Den, spoken by Evan Davis

More sentences with cognomen

Each member has a special cognomen and is known and addressed as Brother Idler, Brother Spectator, or Corinthian.2011, Alec Waugh, My Brother Evelyn & Other Profiles. From the entry oddship
The cognomen was first used in patrician families, who were distinguished from the plebeians by their three names.1945, E[lizabeth] G[idley] Withycombe, “Introduction”, in The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon…. From the entry patrician
Caesar was known by his cognomen, presumably because there were many Julii and it would have caused confusion to use that nomen.2007, Mark Walker, “Roman Names, Numerals, Dates & Days”, in Annus Horribilis: Latin for Everyday Life, Stroud, Gloucestershire: The…. From the entry Julius
My cognomen is Whitehouse, or wise guy, and I am formally cognominal with the residence of some who is not so wise.2006, Chris G. Kruse, Thinking about Cognition: Concepts, Targets and Therapeutics, IOS Press, →ISBN, page 5. From the entry cognominal
Flavius Carminius Athenagoras Claudianus, twin gentilicians and cognomina deriving from father and maternal grandfather – or perhaps we should say, maternal uncle.2005, Epigraphica Anatolica, page 80. From the entry gentilician
"Trix" was a derivation of Trish, our mother's girlhood name, or cognomen, as she called it; Trish was itself a derivation of Patricia.1991, Joyce Carol Oates, Heat And Other Stories, Dutton, →ISBN. From the entry Patricia
Someone sometime and somewhere applied to the American hog the cognomen "mortgage lifter." Was there a good reason for giving the hog such a name, and if so, why?1913 January 4, “Why the "mortgage lifter?"”, in The Michigan Farmer, volume 140, number 1, page 6. From the entry mortgage lifter

Meaning of cognomen

noun A personal epithet or clan name added to the given name and family name of Ancient Romans.
noun Synonym of nickname, any epithet used similar to the Roman cognomina.
noun Synonym of surname, a family name.

Full definition of cognomen

Questions about cognomen in a sentence

How do you use cognomen in a sentence?: Cognomen is used as a noun. For example: “Julius Caesar's actual name was Gaius Iulius Caesar. Gaius was his praenomen or forename, Iulius his nomen or surname, and Caesar his cognomen, denoting which part of the Iulius family he belonged to.”
What is a short sentence with cognomen?: “Tullius), and cognomen (e.g.”
What does cognomen mean?: Cognomen means a personal epithet or clan name added to the given name and family name of Ancient Romans.

Adapted from Wiktionary: cognomen (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use cognomen in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/cognomen. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.