Ancient Romans called all their daughters the same name

The Ancient Romans called all their daughters the same name and then used numbers to distinguish them.

They called their daughters in the feminine form of their father’s first name. For example Julius Ceasar’s daughter was called Julia. If he’d had any more daughters they would have all been called Julia too! This created problems in families with many daughters so they started giving them numbers.

For example if Caesar had had another daughter she would have been called Julia Duo (Julia Two) or Julia Secunda (Julia the Second) and the first Julia would be Julia Una or Julia Prima.

Are you female? Do you have sisters? What would your Ancient Roman name have been?

Here are some latin numerals to help you:

first, second, third, fourth, fifth
primo, secunda, tertia, quarta, quintus

(e.g. If you dad’s called Robert and you have two older sisters you would have been called Roberta Tertia)

Bonus fact: In the Yoruba culture (Nigeria), women are usually known by the name of their firstborn child with the word ‘mama’ in front of it.

Sources:

https://www.therthdimension.org/AncientRome/RomanNaming/romannaming.htm

Discover Countries – Nigeria by Ali Brownlie Bojang