Naming Gods

The present study intends to be an onomastic and typological survey of the divine denominations composed of a theonym and an epithet that were derived, usually with the suffix -ianus, from a Roman anthroponym, either a nomen gentilicium or an individual cognomen (e.g., Apollo Sos-ianus in Rome, Silvanus Lus-ianus in Beneventum, or Fortuna Taur-ian-ensis and Hercules Hermogen-ianus in Ostia). The phenomenon was recognized in scholarship long ago but has not been studied systematically so far.

Sometimes, rarely, the adjectival epithets of deities were derived from the names of other deities, but these cases usually represent a different onomastic caregory in terms of the typology of the suffixes. Since the approach is mainly typological, the purpose of the study being to identify, onomastic patterns in the naming of gods, there are relatively few references to strictly linguistic matters or etymologies.