LATIN PROPER NAMES IN THE LANGUAGE AND CULTURE OF THE ANCIENT ROME

Abstract

Introduction. The fact that almost all contemporary European countries used to be part Roman Empire in the ancient past follows the question at what extend the culture and the way of living have affected the peoples in the different Provinces. Traces are observed in many layers – even in the field of onomastics and the patterns of naming.
 The purpose of the present paper is to establish the main principles of formation of Roman personal name system, its structure and development.
 Background and motivations. Most of the Latin names became extremely popular throughout the centuries due to the fact that they became canonized by the Church. As names of saints and martyrs and because of Christianity gaining popularity as a religion a lot of onyms, part of the Roman personal name system, enter other anthroponymicons. But being foreign their meaning in most of the cases remains unclear to the common people even today.
 Methodology. The main methods used are onomastic data excerption and comparative analysis.
 The expected results are related to describing the appearance and etymology of anthroponyms, Latin by origin, widely spread even today in contemporary European onomastycons.