§47. The _nōmen_ belonged by custom to all connected with the gens, to the plebeian as well as the patrician branches, to men, women, clients, and freedmen without distinction. It was perhaps the natural desire to separate themselves from the more humble bearers of their _nōmen_ that led patrician families to use a limited number of _praenōmina_, avoiding those used by their clansmen of inferior social standing. At any rate it is noticeable that the plebeian families, as soon as political nobility and the busts in their halls gave them a standing above their fellows, showed the same exclusiveness in the selection of names for their children that the patricians had displayed before them (§42). [Illustration: FIGURE 8. NERO] §48. The Cognomen.--Besides the individual name and the name that marked his _gēns_, the Roman had often a third name, called the _cognōmen_, that served to indicate the family or branch of the _gēns_ to which he belonged. Almost all the great _gentēs_ were thus divided, some of them into numerous branches. The Cornelian gens, for example, included the plebeian Dolabellae, Lentuli, Cethegi, and Cinnae, in addition to the patrician Scipiones, Maluginenses, Rufini, etc. The recognition of a group of clansmen as such a branch, or _stirps_, and as entitled to transmit a common _cognōmen_ required the formal consent of the whole _gēns_, and carried with it the loss of certain privileges as _gentīlēs_ to the members of the _stirps_. §49. From the fact that in the official name (§39) the _cognōmen_ followed the name of the tribe, it is generally believed that the oldest of these _cognōmina_ did not go back beyond the time of the division of the people into tribes. It is also generally believed that the _cognōmen_ was originally a nickname, bestowed on account of some personal peculiarity or characteristic, sometimes as a compliment, sometimes in derision. So, we find many pointing at physical traits, such as _Albus_, _Barbātus_, _Cincinnātus_, _Claudus_, _Longus_ (all originally adjectives), and the nouns _Nāsō_ and _Capitō_ ("the man with a nose," "with a head"); others refer to the temperament, such as _Benignus_, _Blandus_, _Catō_, _Serēnus_, _Sevērus_; others still denote origin, such as _Gallus_, _Ligus_, _Sabīnus_, _Siculus_, _Tuscus_. These names, it must be remembered, descended from father to son, and would naturally lose their appropriateness as they passed along, until in the course of time their meanings were entirely lost sight of, as were those of the _praenōmina_ (§44).