personal name

There are many subdivisions and terms within the category of personal names. Originally, one name was given to a person at an early period of life—in Europe (and later in America), normally at baptism. This is called simply the name, the baptismal or…

…agree that the use of personal names arose at an extremely early period in human development. Personal names are derived regularly from ordinary words or from other names. Less commonly, they are derived from the synthesis of essentially meaningless units, such as parts of words, single syllables, or mere sounds…

The great majority of Carthaginian personal names, unlike those of Greece and Rome, were of religious significance—e.g., Hannibal, “Favoured by Baal,” or Hamilcar, “Favoured by Melqart.”

…or nomen, derived from a personal name or perhaps the name of a god or a place. This system was in use by the second half of the 7th century, replacing the use of a single name (as in “Romulus” and “Remus”) and reflecting the new complexity of relationships developing…

… (Otomanguean) communities, a man’s first name becomes the surname of his offspring.

…the divine names used in personal names, those of literary myths and epics, and those of more official pantheons, as found in cultic and political texts.