nomen

noun

1. (historical)The family name of an Ancient Roman, designating their gens.

   “The Romans evolved a quite different system of nomenclature, which in its classical form consisted of three names, the praenomen (e.g. Marcus), nomen (e.g. Tullius), and cognomen (e.g. Cicero), and two other designations (the name of the father and of the tribe): […]”

   “Greeks and other provincials who gained Roman citizenship kept their Greek names as cognomens, to which they added Roman nomens and praenomens—usually those of the ones to whom they owed their citizenship.”

2. (historical)The birth name of a pharaoh, the fifth of the five names of the royal titulary, traditionally encircled by a cartouche and preceded by the title zꜣ-rꜥ.

   “The adytum is unsculptured, but two monoliths within it bear the name of Physcon and Cleopatra; and in the front chamber of the naos is that of the Ethiopian king “Ashar (Atar)-Amun*, the everliving,” who in some of his nomens is called “the beloved of Isis.””

   “The following is a list of the prenomens and nomens of Egyptian kings which are of common occurrence, with transliterations into Roman letters.”

3. A taxonomic name.

   “Over the decades and centuries, Linnaeus’s binominal system reached ever greater prominence as a standard to categorize and stabilize organismal biology, and it became necessary to trace taxon names, so that duplication and confusion could be addressed or avoided. As a consequence, different areas of biology developed 'codes' of nomenclature, according to which the availability of such nomina could be governed.”