Latinisation of names

Latinisation (or Latinization) of names, also known as onomastic Latinisation, is the practice of rendering a non-Latin name in a modern Latin style. It is commonly found with historical proper names, including personal names and toponyms, and in the standard binomial nomenclature of the life sciences. It goes further than romanisation, which is the transliteration of a word to the Latin alphabet from another script (e.g. Cyrillic). For authors writing in Latin, this change allows the name to function grammatically in a sentence through declension.

Not to be confused with Romanization, the conversion of text written in another script into Latin (or Roman) letters, or Liturgical Latinisation.

In a scientific context, the main purpose of Latinisation may be to produce a name which is internationally consistent.

Latinisation may be carried out by:

  • transforming the name into Latin sounds (e.g. Geber for Jabir), or
  • adding Latinate suffixes to the end of a name (e.g. Meibomius for Meibom), or
  • translating a name with a specific meaning into Latin (e.g. Venator for Italian Cacciatore; both mean 'hunter'), or
  • choosing a new name based on some attribute of the person (e.g. Daniel Santbech became Noviomagus, possibly from the Latin (actually Latinised Gaulish) name for the town of Nijmegen, and meaning 'new field').
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