Fabia (gens) - Praenomina Used By The Gens

Praenomina Used By The Gens

The earliest generations of the Fabii favored the praenomina Caeso, Quintus, and Marcus. Soon after the destruction of the Fabii at the Cremera, the name Numerius first appears in the family. The Fabii were the only patrician family to use this praenomen regularly, although it occasionally appears in other patrician gentes, such as the Furii and Valerii, both of which habitually used old or uncommon praenomina. According to legend, Numerius entered the gens when Quintus Fabius Vibulanus married a daughter of Numerius Octacilius Maleventanus, and bestowed his father-in-law's name on his son.

Although the Fabii Ambusti and some later branches of the family used the praenomen Gaius, Quintus is the name most frequently associated with the Fabii of the later Republic. The Fabii Maximi used it to the exclusion of all other names until the end of the Republic, when they revived the ancient praenomen Paullus. This was done in honor of the Aemilii Paulli, from whom the later Fabii Maximi were descended, having been adopted into the Fabia gens at the end of the 3rd century BC. A variety of surnames associated with the Aemilii were also used by this family, and one of them is said to have been named Africanus Fabius Maximus, although his proper name may have been Quintus Fabius Maximus Africanus.

Servius was used by the Fabii Pictores, but does not appear to have been used by any of the other families of the gens. It may have entered the family through a maternal line.