Re: CHAT: Middle Initials

At 6:33 pm -0600 13/2/01, Dan Seriff wrote:
>> Gaius J. Caesar
>> Gaius V. Catullus
>> Marcus T. Cicero
>> Quintus H. Flaccus
>> Titus L. Carus
>> Gaius P. Secundus
>> Gaius S. Crispinus
>> Publius T. Afer
>> Publius V. Maro
>
>The way I've usually seen Roman names in scholarship is with an
>abbreviated praenomen and full gens and cognomen, i.e.:
>
>G. Iulius Caesar
>C. Valerius Catullus
>M. Tullius Cicero
>T. Lucretius Carus
>P. Vergilius Maro
>
>Since the Romans were not terribly imaginative with praenomines, and
>only had one or two beginning with each letter, they could be safely
>abbreviated and well understood.
Correct - that's how the _Romans_ wrote them, tho Gaius was actually
abbreviated as C, retaining the old spelling from the time that C and G had
not been differentiated in writing.

I was facetiously 'Americanizing' these ancients!

Some, I note are still not identified   :)
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At 7:29 pm -0500 13/2/01, Nik Taylor wrote:
[....]
>True ... but there's fewer Raymond A. Brown's than Raymond Brown's, just
>as there's fewer Raymond Brown's than Raymond's.  It's just a matter of
>degree.  And I doubt that you're probably even the only one with the
>same first-middle-last name, either.
Possibly not, but as my middle name's fairly rare, I suspect I have a
chance of being unique.  At any rate other "Raymond Armar Brown"s must be
uncommon.

I've discovered that "Armar' was/is a traditional given name in the Lowry
family.  But I've never discovered its origin.  I would like to know where
it did originate.

BTW it came into our family because when my father was baptized in 1910, a
local reverend in London bore that Christian name.  I've discovered the
Lowrys produced a few reverends.  Coincidence?

Ray.

PS - I hope I've named the family correctly.

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A mind which thinks at its own expense
will always interfere with language.
                   [J.G. Hamann 1760]
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