How to Latinize your name

A practical guide

I have seen many people in groups dedicated to Latin on Discord, Reddit and Telegram asking for the same question: «how can I render my name (and surname) in Latin?»

With this post I’ll try to outline some guidelines to do so. These people are oftentimes beginners, that’s why I’m writing in English.

One caveat: during the whole process remember to keep balance between linguistic purity and intelligibility.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

Step 1. Do some preliminary research

Latin was spoken for centuries after it “died”, therefore it’s very likely that your name has already been translated into it. These are the resources that I recommend for this stage:

• Lexicon Nominum Virorum et Mulierum, written in latin by Karl Egger, is your go-to place if you need to find the latin translation of names from Italian, French, Spanish, English or German.

• If you can’t find your name in the lexicon, try the Wiktionary.

• If you’re Italian, I suggest you to look for the meaning of your surname in Origine e storia dei cognomi Italiani by Ettore Rossoni. If you’re not Italian, any dictionary of surnames in your language should do the trick.

• A great resource is the article The latinizations of the modern surname by Ingram Bywater, where you can find several insights on European surnames.

If you can’t find anything, don’t worry! It’s time to make an educated guess.

Step 2. Formulate your hypothesis

Latinization of names¹ may be carried out this way: by adding a first or second declension suffix (-a or -us) to names ending with a consonant e.g. Abraham: Abrahamus, Jacob: Jacobus, Joseph: Josephus, Elisabeth: Elisabetha.

However there are some exceptions:

• Names ending with l, like Samuel and Joel, don’t change, because they’re modelled after Hannibal and Tanaquil, and are declined as third declension nouns.

• Names ending with -as, -on, -e are treated as greek names e.g. Andreas (first declension), Simon (third declension), Hagne and Irene (gen. -es; acc. -en).

Latinization of surnames is more difficult. In my opinion if a word has been used once, it can be used again, given that there are no better ones available. Latin surnames are not epicene, therefore if your name is female, decline the surname accordingly (add -a instead of -us). If your surname has a nobiliary particle, just translate it to de.

1. Add the appropriate case ending (vd. supra) or leave the surname “untouched” if it can already be declined e.g. Senghor: Senghor (third declension) or Senghorus, Watanabe: Vatanabeus (even Vatanabe is fine), Nakamura: Nacamura.

2. Write the surname in Latin as it sounds and add the appropriate case ending e.g. Hermann: Arminius, Shakespeare: Shacsperus².

3. Give the surname a latin form (or a latinified greek form) based on the etymological meaning e.g. Holtzmann: Xylander, Schwarzerd: Melanchthon, Lovecraft: Eratosthenes, Berlusconi: Biluscus. This type of Latinization poses a great problem of intelligibility, therefore it should be limited to basic surnames with an evident meaning (like occupational and descriptive surnames) which can be easily retranslated in the original language, unless there’s an attested precedent.

About the suffix -ius

Romans, in particular the members of the upper classes, had three names: praenomen, nomen and cognomen. The most important one was the nomen, because it identified a person as a member of a gens. The nomen gentilicium came into being directly by stem augmentation³ i.e. adding -i- to a given name of a real or mythic head of the house before inflection e.g. Aquilus: Aquilius, Cassus: Cassius, Claudus: Claudius, Julus: Julius, Marcus: Marcius, Tullus: Tullius. The nomen in fact is an adjective: Julius mensis, gens Julia, sidus Julium.

During Renaissance it was a common practice for members of the res publica litterarum to Latinize their names⁴. Many added indiscriminately the suffix -ius trying to sound as Latin as possible. However as Springhetti rightly noted we’re not bound by the Roman convention on gentile names. He also added that the same Romans would not translate foreign gentile names by adding -ius e.g. Barcas not Barcius, Calvus not Calvius. Therefore in my opinion all instances of -ius should be changed into the simple -us, unless it’s an old patronym (or matronym) that cannot be reduced to the [genitive of the father’s name] + filius scheme.

For example there’s someone called Mark Johnson, whose father’s name is Peter. Let’s Latinize Johnson. If we don’t decline it as a third declension word (Johnson -onis), the suffix -son has to be cut because it doesn’t belong to Latin, thus Johnsonus or Johnsonius are excluded. Then John should be retranslated into Johannes, but since it’s neither Mark’s or Peter’s name, Johannes and Johannis f. are excluded. This leaves us with Johannius (Johannes + ius) or to be more precise, since it’s a biblical Greek name, Johannides (Johannes + ides). The downside of this system is that surnames like Di Giovanni, Johnson, Johns and Jones, Mac John, Fitzjohn, Hanson, Johanns, Johannsen et cetera get the same translation (less intelligibility). On the other hand it’s just the beauty of walking on common ground.

Italian surnames

• Surnames ending in -a should not be modified apart from ortographical adjustments e.g. Colonna: Columna, Mantegna: Mantinea, Spinola: Spinula.

• Surnames ending in -e can be easily reverted to the Latin original e.g. Gentile: Gentilis, Mercuriale: Mercurialis.

• For surnames ending in -i there are a couple of options. Old patronymics, that don’t represent the father’s name anymore, can’t be distinguished from gentile names. As I’ve written above, the best practice is to Latinize them by turning the vernacular -i into -ius. Otherwise you can turn them in notarial Latin de + [the plural ablative form of the surname] e.g. Alberti: Albertius or de Albertis. For other surnames just turn -i into -us.

• Final -o and -io can be simply changed respectively into -us and -ius e.g. Bembo: Bembus, Filelfo: Philelphus, Tasso: Tassus, Boccaccio: Boccatius, Masaccio: Masaccius.

Spanish and Portuguese surnames

• For surnames ending in -a same as above.

• For toponymical surnames with de one solution is to Latinize them by using the proper case after the preposition. The other is to use the adjectival form of the toponym e.g. De Castro: Castrensis, De Escobar: Scobarius, De Torres: Turrianus.

• Surnames ending in -es are declined as third declension nouns e.g. Morales, Vives, Valles.

• Surnames ending in -ez apparently were regularly Latinized by direct substitution of -ius for the final -ez. There are some exceptions like Alvarez: Alvarus.

French surnames

• They often need the change of a letter or two in the body of the word.

• For surnames ending in -ier the -i- usually disappeared in the Latin form e.g. Champier: Champerius, Chartier: Charterius, Dacier: Dacerius.

• Surnames ending in -on should be declined as third declension words.

• Final -é and -ée was changed respectively into -eus and -aeus e.g. Budé: Budeus, Finé: Fineus, Strebée: Strebaeus.

• Final -eau was changed into -aeus e.g. Brodeau: Brodaeus, Cotereau: Coteraeus.

Dutch, Flemish and German surnames

• They were often supplanted by pseudonyms.

• Final -e was changed into -ius, but it’s fine as it is.

• Final -s (old patronymic) was changed into -ius e.g. Rubens: Rubenius.

English surnames

• English surnames usually follow general rules.

• Surnames ending with -ee were sometimes Latinized by direct substitution of -ea for the final -ee e.g. Dee: Dea, Free: Frea.

• For old patronymics same as above. If you prefer intelligibility over classicalism Johnson -onis is a valid alternative, much better than the awful Johnsonius.

Other names and surnames

There are not many examples to draw general “rules” from.

Real patronymics and matronymics should be translated in Latin by the genitive of the parent’s name followed by filius or filia, as the Romans used to do.

For Slavic surnames ending in -ski/-cki/-dski one solution is to add -us e.g. Chmielnicki: Chmielnicius.

In the Arab world parents are sometimes addressed by their nickname: Abu or Um, which mean respectively father of and mother of, followed by the name of their elder son. This can be translated in Latin by the genitive of the son’s name followed by pater or mater. Sometimes the sound of Ibn (son) has been Latinized with Av- e.g. Ibn Sina: Avicenna, Ibn Rushd: Averroes.

Sometimes Chinese courtesy name zi has been Latinized with -ci- e.g. Kong Fuzi: Confucius, Mengzi: Mencius.

Step 3. Test your hypothesis

You have translated your name in Latin, but you don’t know if it is attested or not. My suggestion is to make a search in Google Books or in Vicipaedia. If you don’t find anything, you can ask for a second opinion in Latin groups online.

Leave a comment below to let me know what you think about this topic!

1. Emilio Springhetti, Institutiones Stili Latini, Pontificia Universitas Gregoriana, Roma, 1954, p. 109

2. To be honest Shakespeare has been translated in Latin in all possible ways…

3. Ingram Bywater, ibidem

4. Dan H. Nicolson, “Orthography of Names and Epithets: Latinization of Personal Names”, Taxon, 4, 1974, pp. 549-561