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ArchivesRe: History of BEATUS / BEATA
in reply to a message by Andy ;—)
According to Kajanto's data (The Latin Cognomina, Roma, 1982) Beatus/Beata is a cognomen, not a praenomen, (cognomen were hereditary and not choosed by parents, more or less like our family names) from the Roman Empire age and related with first Christians. Roberto Faure reports that among these first Christians the name should have the symbolical meaning of "blessed in Christ's faith".
So:
Beatus/Beata were not used before the Christians.
It is impossible that in first times it was the expression of the parents' wish about their child, because it was a cognomen, so an inherited part of the name.
Perhaps in some cases, a Greek Makarios used Beatus to "translate" his name in Latin, but that is anecdotal.
The creation of Beatus/Beata is related with Christians' joy of her new life after a conversion (change in first names and/or in full names after a conversion was usual among first Christians and it is nowadays usual among new Muslims, for instance), not with Jesus' beatitudes nor to anticipate the possible fate of a Christian child.
Lumia
http://onomastica.mailcatala.com
So:
Beatus/Beata were not used before the Christians.
It is impossible that in first times it was the expression of the parents' wish about their child, because it was a cognomen, so an inherited part of the name.
Perhaps in some cases, a Greek Makarios used Beatus to "translate" his name in Latin, but that is anecdotal.
The creation of Beatus/Beata is related with Christians' joy of her new life after a conversion (change in first names and/or in full names after a conversion was usual among first Christians and it is nowadays usual among new Muslims, for instance), not with Jesus' beatitudes nor to anticipate the possible fate of a Christian child.
Lumia
http://onomastica.mailcatala.com
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