This is all very well, but how few are the options left to the parents in selecting the prænomen! There are only eighteen regular Roman prænomens, of which Marcus, Gaius, and Lucius are perhaps the most common. Certain families confine themselves to a very few prænomens. Thus no Cornelian ever names his sons anything but Gnæus, Lucius, and Publius unless the gods bless him with a fourth boy. The Domitii were nearly all either Gnæus or Lucius. Rare was the Claudian eldest son who escaped being called Appius.[97] These cases simply register what is true in most of the old families. The rule is to name your first son always after your own father. Thus Publius Calvus’s young Titus is the grandson of a Titus and the great grandson of a Publius. His younger brother, however, was not thus named by rigid precedent. He could be named Decimus.[98] =162. Irregular and Lengthy Names under the Empire. Names of Slaves.=--Things are far more irregular, however, since the Empire has brought the Roman name along with the Roman citizenship to hordes of freedmen and foreigners. They Latinize their alien names, or they take an altered form of their ex-master’s names, for example, Claudianus Licinianus; or often, being complete upstarts, swell around with absurdly long names often meaning nothing at all. This is true even of some high officers, and there is now ruling as proconsul of Africa a senator calling himself pompously Titus Cæsarinus Statius Quintius Statianus Memmius Macrinus, while that of the governor of North Britain, a certain “Pollio,” has _nine_ names if you give him his full title.[99] As for slaves they were ordinarily called in simpler days of the Republic merely “Marcipor,” or “Lucipor,” etc.,--“Marcus’s boy,” or “Lucius’s boy”; but such descriptions in the days of the great familiæ become impossible. Most house slaves are either named for Greek deities or heroes, or else for some Oriental potentate, precisely as “Cæsar” and “Pompey” will figure on slave plantations of another day. “Mithridates,” “Pharnaces,” “Cyrus,” and the like appear in every atrium. There are also plenty of handsome boys answering to such fine names as “Eros,” “Polydorus,” “Xenophon”; or who are named for their native country as “Syrax” for a Syrian, and “Cappadox” for a Cappadocian. =163. Names of Women. Confusion of Roman Names.=--When a girl is born in an old family her chance of a distinctive name seems even less than that of her brothers. There are really no recognized prænomens for girls, and until lately there have been hardly any regular cognomens. Calvus’s daughter should have been merely called Junia for her gens: “The Junian Woman.” If it is needful, however, to separate her from her cousins, she can be called _Junia Calvi_--“Calvus’s Junia.” If she had a younger sister, she would be simply “_Junia Prima_” as against “_Junia Secunda_”--Junia No. 1 and Junia No. 2.