by Aldus Marius on Tue Mar 04, 2008 9:00 pm
Salve, mi Lupini!
> ...how did the former propraetor of California get the cognomen Maximus, when NR would not let people pick those kind of names?
He came that way. Nova Roma was not at all picky about the names before I volunteered to be Sulla's nomenclator. I can't decide which was worse: Pulchra Dea or the dynamic duo of Dredd and Jasar! My provincial Propraetor's nomen was Hyeanius. Another fellow wanted to be known as...oh, I forget the exact nomen, but it meant something like 'sex-slave'. (Oh yeah--'Catamitus'.)
Others were malformed or misapplied: gens Nigeria, nomen Niger? Martianius? Some gentes had a higher percentage of howlers than others--mostly those whos patres were (A) not Latinate and (B) too proud to accept correction. And many of the womens' names sounded like they should belong to a convulsing maniac...I mean, 'Violentilla Saltatrix'? So a Quintus Fabius Maximus would not have even merited an eyeblink early on.
I did what I could to prevent that sort of thing while I was on watch. Didn't help much; after I left, I heard NR even got a hyphenated gens (since disentangled). Name standards are considerably higher over there nowadays; but they give a lot more leeway on the Latinisation of modern names than I am inclined to, so the occasional oddity still turns up.
Our own naming guidelines are on the site, linked to from both the FAQ and the application form. I wrote 'em. Most of the Don'ts are in response to things I saw in NR. Go figure.
In fide,
Aldus Marius Peregrinus.