cognomen

And so our narrator, with the concealing cognomen “Jane Smith,” holds down a well-paying job as a security analyst, probing the defensive systems of corporate clients for weaknesses.

The dating is based on the lettering style of the inscription and the presence of a cognomen, a sort of inherited ancestral nickname that until the first century B.C. only appeared in the names of very prestigious individuals.

Marcus Novius' cognomen, tubula, means "small trumpet" in Latin.

They used a praenomen or personal name; a nomen, or family name, which “has the same placement as a middle name but has a different function”; and a cognomen, which, she says, was a nickname indicating an attribute or, eventually, what branch of a family you were from.

“That was the sign I was descended from Aesculapius, the god of medicine. I took my cognomen, my third name, Reticulus, because it meant undergarment, to remind me of the blessed day when a chicken stole my loincloth.”