praenomina
Noun
The word is derived from praenomen
Meaning
of Praenomen
Source: Webster's dictionaryAnagrams
Examples
About three dozen Latin praenomina were in use at the beginning of the Republic, although only about eighteen were common.
Also, because praenomina had grammatical gender, a brother and sister could have the same praenomen, in masculine and feminine forms, and still be easily distinguished.
Another confusing practice was the addition of the full nomenclature of maternal ancestors to the basic tria nomina, so that a man might appear to have two praenomina, one occurring in the middle of his name.
In Classical Latin, c represented /ɡ/ only in c and cn, the abbreviations of the praenomina (first names) Gaius and Gnaeus.
Because some gentes made regular use of only three or four praenomina, new names might appear whenever there were several younger sons.
But, as in other ancient societies, Roman women played little role in public life, so the factors that resulted in the continuation of men's praenomina did not exist for women.